How CIA Intelligence Prompted Accelerated US-Israeli Strike on Khamenei Meeting

Femi Ashekun/

The strike that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was accelerated after months of intelligence monitoring by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to reporting by The New York Times.

US officials told the newspaper that the CIA had been closely tracking Khamenei’s movements and communications patterns, ultimately providing high-confidence intelligence to Israel that he would attend a rare, high-level security meeting at a leadership compound in Tehran on Saturday.

Israeli intelligence services independently verified the gathering, which was expected to include some of the most senior figures in Iran’s defence and national security establishment.

The meeting reportedly involved top commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the defence minister and influential advisers including Ali Shamkhani and Ali Larijani.

It is described as an internal defence council session focused on military strategy and coordination at a time of acute regional tension and stalled nuclear talks with Washington.

Once the presence of multiple senior officials was confirmed, US and Israeli planners are said to have moved forward the timing of a strike that had already been under consideration, seeking to exploit what officials viewed as a narrow strategic opportunity.

The compound was hit during the meeting, in what became one of the most consequential targeted operations in the region in decades.

Iranian state television later confirmed Khamenei’s death, describing it as martyrdom and announcing 40 days of national mourning.

The 86-year-old cleric had led the Islamic Republic since 1989 and exercised ultimate authority over the armed forces, judiciary and key state institutions.

His death creates a significant power vacuum and triggers a formal succession process overseen by Iran’s Assembly of Experts.

The operation formed part of a broader US-Israeli campaign against Iranian military and security infrastructure.

According to the United States Central Command, the offensive involved precision strikes on command centres, missile and drone launch facilities and air defence systems.

Washington described it as the largest regional concentration of American military firepower in a generation.

Iran has since launched waves of missile and drone attacks towards Israeli territory and US installations across the Gulf.

American officials say most incoming projectiles were intercepted and that there have been no confirmed US combat fatalities.

Iranian authorities, however, have reported significant casualties from the initial strikes, including civilian deaths in affected areas of Tehran and beyond. Independent verification of precise figures remains ongoing.

The disclosure that CIA intelligence directly shaped the timing of the strike adds a critical new dimension to understanding how the confrontation escalated so dramatically.

It highlights the depth of US-Israeli intelligence cooperation and raises questions within Iran about security breaches at the highest levels of the state.