Nothing indicated in advance that Saturday, February 28, would be particularly notable in the Iranian capital.
But in the middle of the morning rush hour, it exploded. Bombs fell on the government complex, where the residence and office of 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are located, in the middle of Tehran.
According to sources to The Financial Times (FT), Israel had been hacking surveillance cameras in Tehran for several years, which, among other things, allowed guards to be tracked in real time. And on the other side of the Atlantic, the CIA had been tracking the ayatollah and his movement patterns and routines, sources told The New York Times.
Knocked out telephone mast
When American intelligence learned of a summit between Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Khamenei, on Saturday morning, the information was passed on to the Israelis.
According to FT sources, Israel knocked out components in telephone masts near the government complex, which meant that any warnings did not reach Khamenei's bodyguards. Israeli fighter jets took off and at 9:40 local time in Tehran, the government complex was attacked.
"The State of Israel has launched a preemptive strike against Iran," the Israeli Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The assessment was that it would be easier to knock out Iran's leadership before a large-scale war broke out, as it would likely lead Khamenei and his closest men to take protective measures, such as going into underground bunkers.
“The sweet nectar of martyrdom”
"Khamenei, one of the most evil men in history, is dead," wrote US President Donald Trump on the Truth Social platform the same evening the attack took place.
Iran dismissed the reports and claimed he was alive and safe.
But the following morning, during a news broadcast on Iranian state-controlled television, a noticeably shaken news anchor, with a trembling voice and tearful eyes, announced the supreme leader's death.
He has ascended to the highest heaven after tasting the sweet nectar of martyrdom during the holy month of Ramadan, the news anchor said.
Several of Khamenei's family members were also killed in the attack, but his son Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed successor shortly afterwards.
The funeral of the dead ayatollah begins on Saturday and will last for six days.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is believed to have been born in 1939 in Mashhad, a conservative city in northeastern Iran. He received his religious education in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom, where he studied under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, among others.
In 1963, he became involved in protests against Iran's then monarchy, and was imprisoned several times for this. He maintained close contact with Khomeini, and when the latter returned to Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Khamenei was immediately given several high-ranking positions in the new regime.
He was president from 1981 to 1989, when he took over as Iran's supreme leader after Khomeini's death.
Ali Khamenei was killed in an American-Israeli attack on February 28 of this year.
Source: Britannica
