The CIA pinpointed a Saturday morning meeting of Iran’s top leadership in Tehran that included Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, prompting the U.S. and Israel to shift the timing of their attack before Israel struck the compound.
Iranian state media later reported Khamenei was killed.
The CIA had been trackingKhamenei for months and grew more confident about his locations and patterns, people familiar with the operation said.
The agency then learned that senior Iranian officials would gather Saturday morning at a leadership compound in the heart of Tehran and that Khamenei would be there.
The U.S. and Israel had planned to strike at night but adjusted the timing to capitalize on information about the gathering.
People briefed on the intelligence said the CIA passed information described as high fidelity on Khamenei’s position to Israel.
Israel, using U.S. intelligence and its own, carried out an operation it had been planning for months to target Iran’s senior leadership.
The meeting site was described as a compound housing offices tied to the Iranian presidency, the supreme leader, and Iran’s National Security Council.
Israel assessed that the gathering would include senior defense and security officials, including Mohammad Pakpour, commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Aziz Nasirzadeh, defense minister; and Adm. Ali Shamkhani, head of the Military Council.
The list also included Seyyid Majid Mousavi, commander of the Guards’ aerospace force; and Mohammad Shirazi, deputy intelligence minister.
Source:
https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/ayatollah-ali-khamenei-cia-israel/2026/03/01/id/1247858/