Spies are alleged to have infiltrated deep in the heart of Iran before Israel unleashed Operation ‘Rising Lion’ on military and nuclear facilities.
Intelligence agents with Israel’s Mossad smuggled ‘special-made’ weapons to destroy defence infrastructure, like ballistic missile launchers.
Footage shared by the agency appears to show two operatives launching a number of missiles near anti-aircraft sites in central Iran.
An Israeli official later boasted that ‘a base for launching explosive drones was established inside Iran and that the drones were activated during the attack to target missile launchers at a base near Tehran.’
Precision weapons were also smuggles into central Iran and strategically positioned near surface-to-air missile systems, the official said, adding that Israel also deployed strike systems on vehicles.
Israeli media reported that these systems ‘took out’ Iran’s air defences and gave Israeli planes ‘air supremacy’.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed strikes are going to last for ‘days’ – just as parts of the Middle East were experiencing some semblance of stability.
Matthew Savill, military sciences director RUSI, said the emerging reports are ‘a reminder of Israeli expertise in covert operations, its penetration of the Iranian security establishment and its agility in planning ahead with imaginative operations which can be executed at short-notice.’
Commenting on the breadth and scale of the strikes, he admitted they are intended to not just dissuade Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons, but also cripple any potential military response and even to destabilise the regime.
He said the targeting of the IRGC commander, the head of the conventional military, and advisers to Iran’s Supreme Leader, are ‘beyond that necessary for a purely pre-emptive strike’ on the nuclear programme.
Savill explained further: ‘Israel has again demonstrated its considerable conventional military superiority, and the size of the force allegedly assembled for this series of attacks represents the overwhelming bulk of their longer-range strike jets.’
‘They have the ability to conduct multiple rounds of strikes, but operating for an extended duration over this considerable range will stretch even the Israeli Air Force.
‘For now though, they certainly have the capacity to go again.’
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