Donald Trump’s strike on Iran that killed the country’s top Islamic leader was triggered after the CIA uncovered intelligence about a secret meeting involving Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s supreme leader was killed in a joint US–Israeli strike on Saturday, a move that has ignited a wider war across the Middle East and led to the deaths of three American service members.
The CIA and Israeli intelligence played a pivotal role in the lead-up to Trump’s launch of ‘Operation Epic Fury.’
The agency obtained intelligence indicating that senior Iranian officials were scheduled to meet with the ayatollah at his palace in the heart of Tehran on Saturday morning.
Trump and Israeli leaders decided to accelerate the timing of the attack which completely surprised the regime, according to the New York Times.
That window of opportunity created by the CIA’s advanced knowledge of Khamenei’s whereabouts led to the killing of the ayatollah who had ruled over Iran for nearly four decades.
Sources revealed that the US and Israeli governments initially planned to launch the attack against the Iranians under the cover of darkness.
Instead jets took off from military bases in Israel at 6am carrying long-range missiles and precision munitions.
Jets took off from Israel at 6.00am on Saturday armed with long-range missiles after the CIA learned the ayatollah would be having an early morning meeting with top Iranian leadership
The CIA and Israeli intelligence played a pivotal role in the lead-up to Trump’s launch of ‘Operation Epic Fury’
The ayatollah ruled over Iran for nearly four decades as the supreme leader
US and Israeli intelligence worked together to track the ayatollah’s location to a compound in Tehran
Missiles struck the ayatollah’s palace a few hours later in Tehran. During the strike, senior Iranian national security officials were in another part of the building.
The joint military and intelligence operation highlights the close co-operation between US and Israeli forces.
Two high-level military leaders – Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani, and commander of the IRGC Maj. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour – and four of Khamenei’s close family were also obliterated in the Tehran strikes on Saturday morning.
Despite the rapid success of Trump’s strike on Iranian leadership, chaos and death has spread throughout the Middle East with retaliatory strikes from Tehran on US bases.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed to have attacked a US aircraft carrier in revenge for the killing of the country’s Supreme Leader, as it launches drone attacks across the Middle East today.
State media carried a statement claiming the USS Abraham Lincoln had been attacked with ‘four ballistic missiles’.
The Pentagon later denied the Lincoln had been hit but said missiles had been fired that ‘did not even come close’.
Iran has also retaliated with a series of strikes across its neighboring Gulf states, with explosions heard in Qatar, Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Iran has struck back by attacking residential buildings throughout the Gulf (Bahrain pictured)
Trump promised to strike Iran ‘with a force that has never been seen before’
Trump promised to strike Iran ‘with a force that has never been seen before,’ after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced they had attacked nearly 30 US military bases across the Middle East on Sunday morning.
It was revealed today that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also been killed in airstrikes, according to Israeli state TV.
Black smoke was seen rising from a US airbase at Erbil International Airport in northern Iraq at sunrise, after the IRGC promised their most ferocious counterattack.
