{"id":133555,"date":"2026-03-02T00:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T00:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2026\/03\/02\/cia-tracked-iranian-leaders-for-months-ahead-of-attacks-that-began-with-3-strikes-in-60-seconds\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:30:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:30:01","slug":"cia-tracked-iranian-leaders-for-months-ahead-of-attacks-that-began-with-3-strikes-in-60-seconds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/middle-east\/2026\/03\/02\/cia-tracked-iranian-leaders-for-months-ahead-of-attacks-that-began-with-3-strikes-in-60-seconds\/","title":{"rendered":"CIA tracked Iranian leaders for months ahead of attacks that began with 3 strikes in 60 seconds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Israeli and American authorities spent weeks tracking the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sharing information that allowed the strikes to be carried out in a surprise daylight attack, according to an Israeli military official and a person familiar with the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The eventual barrage of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/02\/28\/us-israel-launch-major-combat-operations-in-iran\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/02\/28\/us-israel-launch-major-combat-operations-in-iran\/\">U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran<\/a> came so quickly that they were nearly simultaneous \u2014 with three strikes in three locations hitting within a single minute \u2014 killing Khamenei and some 40 senior figures, including the head of the Revolutionary Guard and the country\u2019s defense minister, the Israeli military official said Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The official insisted on anonymity to more fully detail the attack, but said that a variety of factors created a golden opportunity to take out much of Iran\u2019s leadership, like weeks of training and monitoring the movements of senior figures as well as intelligence in real-time before the attack began that key targets were gathered together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Striking by day also gave an additional element of surprise, said the official, who said that so many major, rapid-fire strikes were critical to keep key officials from fleeing after the first strike. The official said Israel closely cooperated with its U.S. counterparts and had used a similar tactic at the beginning of last June\u2019s war \u2014 which resulted in the killing of several senior Iranian figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The official also noted Khamenei having posted defiant tweets taunting President Donald Trump in the days before the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The details about the strikes came as the conflict entered its second day, with Trump saying in a video message Sunday that he expected it would continue until \u201call of our objectives are achieved.\u201d He did not spell out what those objectives were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Republican president also said the U.S. military and its partners hit hundreds of targets in Iran, including paramilitary Revolutionary Guard facilities, Iranian air defense systems and nine warships, \u201call in a matter of literally minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">CIA had long tracked top Iranian leaders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before the attacks, the CIA had for months tracked the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including the country\u2019s supreme leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The intelligence was shared with Israeli officials, and the timing of the strikes was adjusted in part because of that information about the Iranian leaders\u2019 location, according to the person, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The intelligence-sharing between U.S. and Israel reflects the preparation that went into the strikes, which continued for a second day Sunday after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/middle-east\/2026\/03\/01\/irans-supreme-leader-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-who-led-the-islamic-republic-since-1989-is-dead-at-86\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/middle-east\/2026\/03\/01\/irans-supreme-leader-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-who-led-the-islamic-republic-since-1989-is-dead-at-86\/\">Khamenei\u2019s killing<\/a> threw the future of the Islamic Republic into uncertainty and raised the risk of escalating regional conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CBS\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation\u201d that tracking the movements of the supreme leader and the heads of other adversarial nations \u201cis obviously one of the highest priorities of our intelligence community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. regularly shares intelligence with allies including Israel. Those partnerships, and the accuracy of the intelligence they yield, is often critical not only to the success of a military operation but also to the public\u2019s support for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the senior Democrat on the committee, told The Associated Press that, historically, \u201cour working relationship with the Mossad and Israel is really strong.\u201d Mossad is the Israeli spy agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Warner said he has serious concerns about the justification for the strikes, Trump\u2019s long-term plans for the conflict and the risks that U.S. service members will face. The military announced that three American troops had been killed in the Iran operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNo tears will be shed over their leadership being eliminated, but always the question is: OK, what next?\u201d Warner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Iran has signaled it\u2019s open to talks with the US<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A senior White House official said Iran\u2019s \u201cnew potential leadership\u201d has suggested it is open to talks with the United States. That official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations, said Trump has indicated he\u2019s \u201ceventually\u201d willing to talk but that for now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/middle-east\/2026\/03\/01\/us-israel-pound-iran-as-trump-signals-willingness-to-talk-to-new-iranian-leadership\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/middle-east\/2026\/03\/01\/us-israel-pound-iran-as-trump-signals-willingness-to-talk-to-new-iranian-leadership\/\">the military operation \u201ccontinues unabated.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The official did not say who the potential new Iranian leaders are or how they made their alleged willingness to talk known. Separately, Trump told The Atlantic that he planned to speak with Iran\u2019s new leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,\u201d he said Sunday, declining comment on the timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The potential future diplomatic opening comes as the details were emerging about the detailed planning that went into the U.S.-Israeli strikes and some of the targets that were hit in Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. Central Command said that B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran\u2019s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs. That mirrors the approach that the military took in June, when Trump agreed to deploy B-2 bombers to attack three key Iranian nuclear sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump said during his State of the Union speech last week that Iran had been building ballistic missiles that could reach the U.S. homeland \u2014 a justification he repeated again Saturday as he announced that the bombardment of Iran was underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iran has not acknowledged that it is building or seeking to build intercontinental ballistic missiles. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, however, said in an unclassified report last year that Iran could develop a militarily viable intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 \u201cshould Tehran decide to pursue the capability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Will Weissert and Ben Finley contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The eventual barrage of U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran came so quickly that they were nearly simultaneous, an Israeli military official said Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":112204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":210,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"10":{"categories":["mideast-africa","global","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"mideast-africa"}}},"categories":[10,210],"tags":[],"coauthors":[7464],"class_list":["post-133555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flashpoints","category-middle-east"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"S453MWG5XJG57CWSPUUI5PH2JM","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/middle-east\/2026\/03\/02\/cia-tracked-iranian-leaders-for-months-ahead-of-attacks-that-began-with-3-strikes-in-60-seconds\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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