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
The eventual barrage of 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 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 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 The official also noted Khamenei having posted defiant tweets taunting President Donald Trump in the days before the attack.<\/p>\n 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 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 CIA had long tracked top Iranian leaders<\/p>\n Before the attacks, the CIA had for months tracked the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including the country\u2019s supreme leader.<\/p>\n 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