Tehran, Iran. Israeli intelligence tracked senior Iranian officials’ movements in Tehran for years before an air strike on Saturday that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Financial Times reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Surveillance of traffic cameras and bodyguards
According to the report, Israeli operatives monitored Iranian bodyguards and drivers as they headed to work in the Iranian capital. The Financial Times said almost every traffic camera in Tehran had been hacked, with footage encrypted and transmitted to servers in Tel Aviv and southern Israel.
One camera provided a particularly useful angle, one of the sources said on condition of anonymity, enabling Israeli operatives to identify where bodyguards usually parked their personal vehicles.
The report said Israeli services received real-time updates on addresses, working hours and routes taken by Iranian bodyguards, as well as information on which officials they were protecting and transporting.
Additional methods cited in report
The Financial Times reported that the real-time data stream was not the only method used by Israel and the Central Intelligence Agency to determine when the 86-year-old leader would be in his office on Saturday and who would accompany him.
According to the report, Israel tampered with data from 12 mobile phone towers near Pasteur Street, making them appear busy when called and preventing Khamenei’s guards from receiving possible warning signals.
“Before the bombs fell, we knew Tehran as we know Jerusalem,” one Israeli intelligence official said. “And when you know a place as well as the neighbourhood you grew up in, you notice the slightest change.”
Intelligence collection and data analysis
The report said the intelligence picture of Tehran resulted from years of data collection enabled by Israel’s signals unit 8200, human assets recruited by the Mossad, and information processed by military intelligence to compile daily reports.
It also said Israel used a mathematical technique known as social network analysis to process billions of data points, uncover decision-making hubs, and identify targets for surveillance and elimination.
Context cited by Financial Times
The Financial Times said the strength of Israeli intelligence was evident during the 12-day war last June, when Iranian nuclear scientists and senior military officials were assassinated within minutes in an initial strike.
What questions do you have about the methods described in the Financial Times report and how they were used in the operation?
