Unveiled: Inside Israel’s Covert Efforts to Disrupt Iran

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was driving to his vacation dwelling in Absard, 50 miles east of Tehran, when Mossad caught up with him. The daddy of Iran ’s nuclear programme because the Nineteen Nineties was driving his Nissan Teana luxurious saloon along with his spouse within the passenger seat beside him and his bodyguards travelling in vehicles forward and behind them. As they handed a pickup truck on the Imam Khomeini Boulevard, a machine gun opened up – an M240C firing 7.62mm rounds, customary difficulty for the US military. However this was not an assault by American particular forces. Actually, there was nobody within the truck with the weapon in any respect.

Fakhrizadeh was hit by a number of bullets. After his automotive veered to a halt, he fell out of the door and collapsed, dying in a pool of his personal blood. At first the Iranian media had no thought how the assassination was carried out. Wild theories involving gunmen on bikes, a truck bomb and a platoon of particular forces had been aired. However the reality was extra extraordinary than that. Over a interval of eight months, the machine gun was smuggled into Iran in items, together with explosives, and secretly assembled by a 20-man crew, who additionally tracked Fakhrizadeh’s each transfer.

As one agent put it, Mossad ‘breathed with the man, awoke with him, slept with him, travelled with him. They’d have smelled his aftershave each morning if he had used aftershave.’ On the day of the assassination, a truck fitted with cameras was positioned on the roadside, apparently ‘broken-down’, about three-quarters of a mile earlier than the kill web site – a place chosen as a result of it supplied an excellent line of sight. As Fakhrizadeh’s Nissan got here into vary, the machine gun’s telescopic sight used synthetic intelligence to lock on to Fakhrizadeh’s face, fired 13 occasions and hit its goal with such accuracy that his spouse was not injured. It then self-destructed, blowing up the truck too.

Israeli sources later confirmed to me that this was not science fiction, a remote-controlled gun was certainly used – although they stopped wanting taking credit score for the kill. This episode occurred in November 2020 however is typical of the fiendishly ingenious techniques employed by Israel’s intelligence company, essentially the most formidable service of its form on the planet. Its extraordinary energy was on show as soon as once more this month in Operation Rising Lion, the marketing campaign of mass sabotage, destruction and assassination towards Iran launched on June 13, in essentially the most advanced opening to any battle fought in human historical past.

And it ready the bottom for an offensive that culminated within the surgical strike on Iran’s nuclear websites by B-2 bombers of the US Air Power geared up with bunker-busters. The unofficial codename given to Israel’s long-term coverage for crippling Iran’s army machine, wrecking its air defences and hampering its nuclear programme was ‘Loss of life by a thousand cuts’. The distinction now could be that each one the cuts are coming directly. Aside from the 200 fighter-bomber jets flying sorties across the clock, a whole lot of particular forces troopers have been working secretly inside Iran, together with untold numbers of spies and double brokers.

With weapons and munitions smuggled throughout the border, they’ve set off quite a few automotive bombs and usually wreaked havoc. In the meantime, swarms of drones – working from covert warehouses in Iran itself – have delivered their explosive payloads with pinpoint precision. Plus clusters of rockets, shells and ballistic missiles have hit targets the size and breadth of the nation.

Even civilians have gotten concerned. On Thursday, it emerged an Israeli telecoms government working in Europe had been requested to assist design a tool that regarded like a low-tech cell phone however which may transmit encrypted information disguised as social media visitors. And a techie working at an Israeli well being start-up was requested to tweak an algorithm he had labored on throughout his army service, to allow a devoted server to sift by way of satellite tv for pc photos of gasoline vans and establish which of them had been carrying missile propellant quite than petrol.

All that is in the end the brainchild of 1 man – the pinnacle of Mossad since 2021, David Barnea. He’s the identical top-level espionage chief who masterminded the exploding pager assaults that worn out the excessive command and middle-ranking officers of Lebanon’s terrorist organisation Hezbollah final yr. Little marvel that inside Mossad he is named ‘a gadget-loving killing machine’. Certainly, the Iranians have turn out to be so paranoid {that a} hardline MP this week referred to as for all ‘commanders, senior officers, nuclear scientists — and even their households’ to jettison their cell phones. Barnea nearly by no means speaks to journalists however, in the midst of co-writing my guide Goal Tehran – which attracted international consideration final week after Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pictured with a duplicate of it on his workplace desk – I discovered methods to construct up an in depth portrait of him.

Within the course of I constructed up an in depth portrait of the person who’s masterminding the battle towards Iran – laying plans and launching operations so ingenious that sheer panic is now spreading all through the Islamic Republic. The heads of Iran’s authorities, its military and its nuclear amenities actually don’t know what has hit them… nor what’s going to hit them subsequent. By taking out the linchpin of Iran’s nuclear programme, Israel inflicted one of many deepest of its thousand cuts. Till then, maybe essentially the most damaging had been a heist executed by Mossad in southern Tehran, a blow as audacious because it was embarrassing to the Ayatollahs’ regime – the theft of all their nuclear secrets and techniques.

On January 31, 2018, two dozen Israeli spies and Iranian double brokers broke into a colorless warehouse with a corrugated iron roof within the industrial Shirobad district. They used blowtorches to interrupt right into a collection of metal vaults earlier than beginning to take away information, each paper and digital, that detailed each step of Iran’s nuclear analysis going again 30 years. Over the subsequent six-and-a-half hours, they loaded half a tonne of printouts and compact discs on to a truck earlier than making their escape. By the point the Iranians found the break-in, a number of decoy autos had been dashing in all instructions to varied borders.

The supplies from this heist satisfied America and Israel’s different allies, together with the UK, that Iran really was intent on constructing nuclear weapons. This was not a repeat of the Iraqi ‘tremendous gun’ shambles, which concerned a Canadian engineer making an attempt to influence Saddam Hussein that he may develop an enormous artillery piece able to firing missiles into orbit. Tehran was already very near producing the enriched uranium it wanted to make a bomb.

On the time, the pinnacle of Mossad was Yossi Cohen, a boisterous and charismatic man identified for his dapper gown sense. Cohen is an alpha male, the type of man who dominates the room. His protege and successor, Barnea, is sort of completely different: calm, understated, quietly spoken, a person you may not discover – and maybe wouldn’t keep in mind should you did see him. Like Cohen, he started his profession as a case officer, recruiting and dealing with brokers in enemy territory, in addition to a two-year spell as deputy head of Keshet, Mossad’s eavesdropping division. However he additionally served in Sayeret Matkal, a key Israeli military Particular Forces unit – as did Naftali Bennett, who had simply turn out to be prime minister of the newly elected coalition authorities when Barnea took over Mossad.

Bennett, an knowledgeable on Iran, insisted on frequent intelligence briefings, and between them the 2 males agreed on the ‘dying by a thousand cuts’ coverage. They understood that the fundamentalist Islamic Republic was loathed by many atypical Iranians, a lot because the Soviet Union was hated by hundreds of thousands of its residents in the course of the Chilly Struggle. And the Ayatollahs, just like the Politburo, had been sure to fall if sufficient stress was utilized. ‘The regime is profoundly incompetent and pretty corrupt,’ Bennett instructed me. ‘Massive swathes of land don’t get water. You activate the faucets and also you get mud. And persons are very annoyed with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC], the Iranian armed forces.’

Three weeks after Barnea took cost of Mossad, the safety companies struck a direct blow towards Iran’s nuclear amenities, in a meticulously deliberate project that now seems to have been a take a look at run for Operation Rising Lion. A plant close to Karaj, about 25 miles west of Tehran, was attacked by a quadcopter drone which was in a position to drop a bomb on its roof – then returned to its launch location 10 miles away, able to fly a future mission. The manufacturing unit, which manufactured components for the centrifuges important for uranium enrichment, was related to the Atomic Power Organisation of Iran [AEOI]. Tehran denied that the assault had precipitated important injury however, for the subsequent six months, worldwide inspectors had been denied permission to go to the plant.

This was a message to Ayatollah Khamenei and his ministers. Mossad now had free rein to be as aggressive as crucial. ‘We’ve been suckers,’ Bennett mentioned. ‘Iran’s objective was to weigh us down combating in Gaza and Lebanon, whereas they sit again blissful in Tehran. They should pay a direct worth once they use proxies to hit us. Each time Hamas or Islamic Jihad shoots a rocket at an Israeli metropolis, somebody pays a worth in Iran.’ A type of who acquired a invoice from Mossad, in accordance with my sources and international studies, was Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, the pinnacle of Unit 840, a secretive IRGC power working outdoors Iran towards Western targets and opponents of the regime.

Khodaei was gunned down by two assailants on a motorbike as he sat in his automotive outdoors his dwelling in downtown Tehran. Pictures on social media confirmed him slumped within the driver’s seat with the entrance passenger window shot out. The assassination was the primary on Iranian soil of an official not linked to the nuclear programme. This assault too could be seen as a gown rehearsal for Operation Rising Lion. The place targets had been too effectively protected to be hit by drones, human assassins could be used. It’s unimaginable to know what number of Israeli brokers and commandos, each female and male, are inside Iran proper now, however many could have been embedded for years.

Some could be disguised as loyal servants of the federal government, even trusted insiders equivalent to bodyguards or nuclear employees. However others might be profiting from the deep divisions inside Iranian society. The Islamic regime is Shi’ite however in a rustic of 92million folks, a sizeable share come from totally completely different cultures: Sunnis, Kurds, Balochs and extra. A few of them regard the Tehran authorities as occupiers in areas that ought to not even be a part of Iran – and, on the idea that ‘my enemy’s enemy is my good friend’, could be keen to lend assist to Israeli particular forces.

The successes of Operation Rising Lion have been astounding. They embody the medical elimination of three very senior figures: the pinnacle of the Iranian armed forces, the commander of the IRGC and the commander of Iran’s Emergency Command. ‘These are three ruthless mass murderers with worldwide blood on their arms,’ the Israeli Defence Power posted on social media. ‘The world is a greater place with out them.’ After which, to underline the message, Israel’s international minister Gideon Sa’ar introduced that the alternative head of the armed forces, Basic Gholam Ali Rashid, had additionally been eradicated after simply three days in his submit, with a automotive bomb. ‘I might suggest that whoever takes on the submit considers rigorously,’ Saar mentioned sarcastically, ‘and in the event that they settle for, they need to train further warning.’

A number of prime nuclear scientists have additionally been killed, together with one who was in his condominium in a tower block. Pictures confirmed a drone-shaped gap within the facet of the constructing and blast injury to a single room. Neighbouring flats on adjoining flooring had been apparently unscathed. However one other dimension to the strikes was maybe much more essential, even when it generated fewer headlines. Iran’s air defences have been successfully neutralised. And these had been the primary to go, as a result of their elimination was essential if Israeli jets had been to have the ability to assault the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.

The regime was happy with its S-300 anti-aircraft missile methods, bought at big expense from Russia after 10 years of pleading. The S-300 is particularly designed to be lethal towards F-15 and F-16 jets. These comprise a big a part of Israel’s important strike power, ideally suited for dropping glide bombs on targets. In October final yr, Israel destroyed all of the S-300s, ostensibly as revenge for a large Iranian ballistic missile assault. We are able to now see this manoeuvre as another far-sighted preparation for Operation Rising Lion. My guide, Goal Tehran, predicted the battle towards Iran and, although nobody may have foreseen all of the ruses Mossad used, I envisaged intimately the waves of fighter-bombers after Iran’s air defences had been obliterated. Israel is combating for its existence. And Mossad will likely be cruel.