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The U.S. and Israel had been closely coordinating leading up to this weekend’s airstrikes
Isabel Keane in New York Sunday 01 March 2026 18:45 GMT- Bookmark
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Close popoverExplosion rocks Iran’s capital as Israel says it's targeting Tehran after strikes kill Khamenei
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Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated in a surprise daytime attack carried out by Israel and the United States that came after months of the C.I.A. tracking Iranian leaders’ movements.
Iran’s state media reported that the 86-year-old was killed Saturday in an airstrike targeting his compound in downtown Tehran.
The C.I.A. had been tracking Ayatollah Khamenei for months before learning that a meeting of top Iranian officials would be held Saturday morning, and that the supreme leader would be in attendance, sources told The New York Times.
The meeting provided a window of opportunity and forced the U.S. and Israel to adjust the timing of their attack to eliminate top Iranian officials and kill Ayatollah Khamenei.
The U.S. and Israel closely coordinated on the attack, with the C.I.A. passing its intelligence on Khamenei’s position to Israel, according to the report.
open image in gallerySupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated Saturday in Iran in an attack carried out by the U.S. and Israel that followed months of coordination (Getty Images)Israel, which carried out the strikes on Iran’s top leaders using U.S. intelligence and its own, determined that the gathering would include top Iranian defense officials, including Mohammad Pakpour, the commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps; Aziz Nasirzadeh, the minister of defense; Admiral Ali Shamkhani, the head of the Miliary Council; Seyyed Majid Mousavi, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force; Mohammad Shirazi, the deputy intelligence minister; amongst others, according to the New York Times.
Fighter jets took off from Israeli bases around 6 a.m. The attack reportedly involved aircraft armed with long-range, highly accurate munitions, according to the report.
The long-range missiles struck the compound in Tehran about two hours and five minutes later. At the time of the attack, senior Iranian national security officials were in one building on the compound, while Ayatollah Khamenei was in another nearby building.
The Israeli jets dropped 30 bombs on Khamenei’s compound, leaving it scorched, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“This morning’s strike was carried out simultaneously at several locations in Tehran, in one of which senior figures of Iran’s political-security echelon had gathered,” an Israeli defense official wrote in a message reviewed by The New York Times.
The official added that despite Iranian preparations for the war, Israel pulled off a “tactical surprise” with its attack on the compound.
open image in galleryThe C.I.A. had been tracking Iran’s Supreme Leader for months leading up to the attack (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)People briefed on the operation told the New York Times it was a result of good intelligence and months of preparation.
The U.S. and Israel had built an extensive target list, with sites ranging from surface missile locations to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control buildings, according to The Washington Post.
The Israel Defense Forces said the operation involved more than 200 Israeli jets, which dropped hundreds of munitions on more than 500 targets. The U.S. has not provided specifics on how many of its own jets were used or how many targets they struck.
Both Israel and the U.S. said they were continuing to carry out strikes moving into Sunday, and officials said they could continue for days, according to the Journal.
“This fateful operation will continue as long as necessary, and it requires patience,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Ahead of the operation, Israel’s top military officials had been flying to and from Washington, D.C., to plan the offensive, according to the Journal.
open image in galleryShiite Muslims in Lahore, Pakistan, mourn the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a protest against U.S. and Israeli airstrikes (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)Netanyahu met with Trump in December at the president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, where they agreed that military action would be justified if Iran continued its nuclear program. The two met a second time in February at the White House, per the report.
Since the joint U.S.-Israel military strikes began Saturday morning, Iran has launched hundreds of retaliatory missiles at American and Israeli targets within the region.
President Donald Trump warned the U.S. will hit Iran “with a force that has never been seen before,” if it retaliates after the death of their supreme leader.
On Sunday, a senior White House official told the Associated Press that “new potential leadership” in Iran has suggested that they are open to talks with the U.S.
The official said that Trump will “eventually” be willing to talk, but for now, the military operation “continues unabated.”
open image in galleryPotential new leadership in Iran has suggested that they are open to talks with the U.S., according to reports (AP)The U.S. military said Sunday that three service members were killed and five others were seriously wounded in the operation.
The latest strikes came two days after the most recent U.S.-Iran talks, which saw Trump pressure Tehran to limit its nuclear program.
More than 200 people have died in Iran following the strikes, according to Iranian authorities. Ten people have been killed in Israel and two in the UAE.
Tehran also continued to launch retaliation strikes Sunday, with an oil tanker hit off the coast of Oman and a person killed in Abu Dhabi after a drone was intercepted over its airport.
An Iranian Jamaran-class corvette was also struck by U.S. forces at the start of the operation. The U.S. Central Command wrote on X that the ship is currently sinking to the bottom of the Gulf of Oman at a Chah Bahar pier.
The U.S. and Israel also struck Iran last June during earlier nuclear talks, and weakened Iran’s air defenses, military leadership and nuclear program as a result.
The Trump administration has asserted that Iran has been rebuilding its nuclear program and has pressured Tehran to limit its actions. Meanwhile, Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
With reporting by the Associated Press
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