Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s reward came from heaven.
Israel used a powerful ballistic missile that flew to the edge of space before plummeting to Earth and blasting Iran’s unsuspecting supreme leader and dozens of his top henchmen last Saturday.
The Blue Sparrow, a missile that can fly for 1,240 miles and leaves the Earth’s atmosphere before crashing down, was used by Israel during Operation Epic Fury, killing Khamenei and his cohorts.
Here’s how the Blue Sparrow hit Iran. Donald Pearsall / NY Post Design
So intense was the impact that debris was found in western Iraq, according to Israeli sources.
The surprise attack came together last week after Israeli officials deliberately gave the impression that its military was standing down for the weekend, an Israel Defense Forces official told reporters Thursday.
“We released photos and information suggesting that IDF staff and senior command were going home for Shabbat dinner,” said the official, who did not want to be named, according to the BBC.
While the high-ranking officials made a show of leaving the headquarters to enjoy the weekend, they quickly donned disguises and covertly returned to the facility to prep for the attack on Khamenei’s compound.
Although the strikes were originally planned for nighttime, the schedule was shifted to exploit a Saturday morning meeting of Tehran’s top officials, people familiar with the operation told the New York Times.
Prior to the attack, Khamenei was believed to be spending most of his evenings in a deep, underground bunker to shield himself from any attacks.
An Israeli F-15 fighter was used in the operation. IAF
Mossad, Israel’s top intelligence agency, was able to keep tabs on where the regime’s senior leaders’ bodyguards were stationed when they arrived at Khamenei’s compound on Pasteur Street in the heart of Tehran, the IDF officials noted.
The spy agency had access to the guards’ schedules and movements, with one camera in the vicinity proving pivotal in tracking the situation.
All developments were then transmitted back to Tel Aviv, letting Israeli officials know the perfect time to strike.
Israeli F-15 jets and other aircraft were deployed at around 7:30 a.m. Iran time, with the aircraft unleashing 30 missiles, including Blue Sparrows, at the heart of the Ayatollah’s compound about two hours later.
Blue Sparrows are part of an air-launched missile series designed to simulate the Soviet Union’s Scud missiles, similar to those used by Iraq during the Gulf War.
They are typically launched from fighter jets, with their booster rockets taking them to space so the bombs may hover over their intended target.
The Blue Sparrow was originally designed to evade air defense systems given their high speed, with Israel believed to have used them during its 2024 assault on Iran.
As the initial wave of strikes showered over the rival nation, both the IDF and US war rooms were synchronized in real time to make on-the-fly adjustments based on the Iranian response, the IDF official said Thursday.
The IDF simultaneously disrupted around a dozen mobile phone towers near Khamenei’s compound to keep his security from receiving any possible warnings.
The hacks and spying efforts were all part of a years-long Israeli intelligence campaign designed to take out Khamenei, the Jewish state’s most feared adversary.
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The CIA had also familiarized itself with the patterns of the 86-year-old tyrant before obtaining new intelligence of the fateful meeting in the center of Tehran, the New York Times reported.
Along with Khamenei, Israeli officials claimed the strike killed more than 40 of Iran’s top leaders, including Mohammad Pakpour, who served as the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Abdolrahim Mousavi, Iran’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi, the country’s highest ranking military official, was also among the regime’s leaders who were killed in the airstrikes, according to state broadcasters.
The strikes in Tehran also reportedly killed Khamenei’s daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law.
The attack was put into motion because Iran’s nuclear program was being moved too deep underground to be dismantled by conventional means and the escalation of Iranian ballistic missile production, the IDF official added.