Israel hacked into Tehran’s extensive traffic camera network in order to track the bodyguards of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian officials ahead of Saturday’s assassination of the supreme leader, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Iran’s cameras are believed to be part of the state’s surveillance apparatus, allowing authorities to identify and pursue protesters and regime opponents. But the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, was able to co-opt the network for use against the regime, the report said.
The FT said Israel gained access to the cameras years ago, and found that one particular camera was angled in such a way that it showed where members of Khamenei’s security team parked their cars.
Through the cameras, Israeli intelligence built files on the guards’ addresses, work schedules, and who they were assigned to protect.
On the day of the attack, Israel and the US also disrupted cellular service on Tehran’s Pasteur Street, where Khamenei was assassinated, so those trying to reach the bodyguards and deliver possible warnings would receive busy signals, per the report.
“We knew Tehran like we know Jerusalem,” an Israeli intelligence official told the Financial Times. “And when you know [a place] as well as you know the street you grew up on, you notice a single thing that’s out of place.”
Israel used AI tools and algorithms it had developed to sort through mountains of data it was amassing on Iran’s leadership and their movements, according to an official who spoke with the British daily, which said the bulk of the work was performed by the IDF’s Unit 8200.
The massive data mining operation allowed the military to track Khamenei to the Saturday meeting where he was struck, and assured Mossad and the CIA that senior officials were on their way to the meeting.
The CIA also had a human source who provided key intelligence, according to the sources. No further details were provided.
Khamenei, who had led the Islamic Republic since 1989, was killed in an Israeli airstrike Saturday morning during the opening salvo of the US-Israeli campaign that has hammered Iran in the days since. Iran has said it will convene its Assembly of Experts as soon as it can to name a successor.
The New York Times reported on Monday that the US and Israel were intending to open the war against Iran on Friday night, hitting Tehran under the cover of darkness, but delayed the first strikes until Saturday morning because of intelligence that enabled the elimination of Khamenei.
“The timing was ultimately determined by a remarkable intelligence coup,” said the newspaper, in an extensive report that chronicled US President Donald Trump’s decision to go to war. “The CIA, which had been closely tracking Ayatollah Khamenei’s movements, learned that the supreme leader was planning to be at his residential compound in central Tehran on Saturday morning. Senior Iranian civilian and military leaders were also set to convene at the same location, at the same time. The CIA passed the intelligence to the Israelis, and leaders of both countries decided to kick off the war with a bold ‘decapitation’ strike in daylight.”
It said Trump gave “the official go order” as he flew to Corpus Christi on Friday afternoon to deliver a speech about energy.
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