by Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv at ProPublica
Reporting Highlights
- Covert Ops: Commandos that the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, recruited from Iran and neighboring nations destroyed Iranian air defenses in the first hours of a June attack.
- Intelligence Gathering: Israeli operatives identified the bedrooms in which Iranian nuclear scientists were sleeping, enabling precise airstrikes.
- Cyber Deception: Israel sent a fake message that summoned senior Iranian military leaders to a phantom meeting in a bunker that was then bombed by Israeli jets.
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
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In the early morning hours of June 13, a commando team led by a young Iranian, S.T., settled into position on the outskirts of Tehran. The target was an anti-aircraft battery, part of the umbrella of radars and missiles set up to protect the capital and its military installations from aerial attack.
Across the country, teams of Israeli-trained commandos recruited from Iran and neighboring nations were preparing to attack Iranian defenses from within.
As described by their handlers, their motives were a mix of personal and political. Some were seeking revenge against a repressive, clerical regime that had imposed strict limits on political expression and daily life. Others were enticed by cash, the promise of medical care for family members or opportunities to attend college overseas.
The attack had been planned for more than a year by the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. Just nine months earlier, the spy agency had shocked the world with its technical prowess — executing a plot hatched in 2014 by its director at the time, Tamir Pardo, that crippled Hezbollah by detonating pagers booby-trapped with tiny but lethal amounts of explosives. According to Hezbollah, the blasts killed 30 fighters and 12 civilians, including two children, and injured more than 3,500.
At 3 a.m. on June 13, S.T. and a foreign legion of roughly 70 commandos opened fire…
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