Israel’s successful strategy of targeting top Iranian leaders claimed a major victim on Monday with the planned assassination of the de facto leader and the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani. Now reports have revealed how Israel tampered with Iran’s radar system to trick officials into believing it was safe before inflicting the fatal blow that killed Larijani.
Besides Larijani, the Israeli airstrike also claimed the lives of Basij paramilitary force commander, Gholamreza Soleimani, and other senior Basij figures.
According to a report that appeared in Hebrew media, the operational success of the mission did not rely solely on firepower, but on advance planning that circumvented the most stringent security protocols of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Israel used "digital camouflage" technology in the mission.
Israel had taken note of the tendency of Iranian officials to demonstrate a public presence to convey resilience. Security sources indicate that Israel tricked Larijani's security apparatus by disrupting his encrypted communication networks and creating a “dead zone” within Iranian radar systems using advanced electronic warfare. Larijani and his bodyguards were confident that they were moving on a secure route free from exposure. But Israel had already tampered with their communication lines and fed them incorrect information about the level of threat in the region. When the systems in Tehran presented operators with a clear sky image, the Israeli vehicles were already on their way to the target, the report quoted The Wall Street Journal.
“There is a cumulative effect of deep intelligence penetration here," Sima Shein, a former senior Mossad official, told Hebrew media C14. She noted that the assassinations are causing the remaining senior figures in Tehran to "lower their profile and reduce their communications for fear of becoming a target.”
Interestingly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement to Iranians on Tuesday evening marked the Persian New Year, Nowruz. Invoking the tradition of the Festival of Fire, Netanyahu said: “So celebrate, and happy Nowruz. We are watching you from the skies,” he said.