CIA tracked Iranian leaders for months forward of assaults that started with 3 strikes in 60 seconds | EUROtoday

Israeli and American authorities spent weeks monitoring the actions of senior Iranian leaders, together with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sharing data that allowed the strikes to be carried out in a shock daylight assault, in accordance with an Israeli navy official and an individual aware of the operation.

The eventual barrage of U.S.-Israeli assaults on Iran got here so rapidly that they had been practically simultaneous — with three strikes in three places hitting inside a single minute — killing Khamenei and a few 40 senior figures, together with the pinnacle of the Revolutionary Guard and the nation’s protection minister, the Israeli navy official mentioned Sunday.

The official insisted on anonymity to extra absolutely element the assault, however mentioned that a wide range of components created a golden alternative to take out a lot of Iran’s management, like weeks of coaching and monitoring the actions of senior figures in addition to intelligence in real-time earlier than the assault started that key targets had been gathered collectively.

Striking by day additionally gave a further factor of shock, mentioned the official, who mentioned that so many main, rapid-fire strikes had been essential to maintain key officers from fleeing after the primary strike. The official mentioned Israel carefully cooperated with its U.S. counterparts and had used an analogous tactic at first of final June’s battle — which resulted within the killing of a number of senior Iranian figures.

The official additionally famous Khamenei having posted defiant tweets taunting President Donald Trump within the days earlier than the assault.

The particulars concerning the strikes got here because the battle entered its second day, with Trump saying in a video message Sunday that he anticipated it will proceed till “all of our objectives are achieved.” He didn’t spell out what these goals had been.

CIA had lengthy tracked prime Iranian leaders

Before the assaults, the CIA had for months tracked the actions of senior Iranian leaders, together with the nation’s supreme chief.

The intelligence was shared with Israeli officers, and the timing of the strikes was adjusted partly due to that details about the Iranian leaders’ location, in accordance with the particular person, who was not approved to remark publicly and spoke on situation of anonymity.

The intelligence-sharing between U.S. and Israel displays the preparation that went into the strikes, which continued for a second day Sunday after Khamenei’s killing threw the way forward for the Islamic Republic into uncertainty and raised the danger of escalating regional battle.

Sen. Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, informed CBS’ “Face the Nation” that monitoring the actions of the supreme chief and the heads of different adversarial nations “is obviously one of the highest priorities of our intelligence community.”

“Clearly, this operation is driven by intelligence collected by Israel and the United States that has once again proven that our nations have capabilities that no other nation on Earth has,” mentioned Cotton, an Arkansas Republican.

The U.S. commonly shares intelligence with allies together with Israel. Those partnerships, and the accuracy of the intelligence they yield, is usually essential not solely to the success of a navy operation but additionally to the general public’s help for it.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the senior Democrat on the committee, informed The Associated Press that, traditionally, “our working relationship with the Mossad and Israel is really strong.” Mossad is the Israeli spy company.

Warner mentioned he has severe issues concerning the justification for the strikes, Trump’s long-term plans for the battle and the dangers that U.S. service members will face. The navy introduced Sunday that three American troops had been killed and 5 had been severely wounded within the Iran operation.

“No tears will be shed over their leadership being eliminated, but always the question is: OK, what next?” Warner mentioned.

Iran has signaled it’s open to talks with the US

Meanwhile, a senior White House official mentioned Iran’s “new potential leadership” has urged it’s open to talks with the United States. That official, who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate inside administration deliberations, mentioned Trump has indicated he’s “eventually” keen to speak however that for now the navy operation “continues unabated.”

The official didn’t say who the potential new Iranian leaders are or how they made their alleged willingness to speak identified. Separately, Trump informed The Atlantic that he deliberate to talk with Iran’s new management.

“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,” he mentioned Sunday, declining touch upon the timing.

The potential future diplomatic opening comes as the small print had been rising concerning the detailed planning that went into the U.S.-Israeli strikes and a number of the targets that had been hit in Iran.

U.S. Central Command mentioned that B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran’s ballistic missile amenities with 2,000-pound bombs. That mirrors the method that the navy took in June, when Trump agreed to deploy B-2 bombers to assault three key Iranian nuclear websites.

Trump mentioned throughout his State of the Union speech final week that Iran had been constructing ballistic missiles that might attain the U.S. homeland — a justification he repeated once more Saturday as he introduced that the bombardment of Iran was underway.

Iran has not acknowledged that it’s constructing or searching for to construct intercontinental ballistic missiles. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, nonetheless, mentioned in an unclassified report final yr that Iran may develop a militarily viable intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 “should Tehran decide to pursue the capability.”

___

Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Ben Finley contributed to this report.