CIA intelligence indicating Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would attend a meeting of top Iranian officials helped guide strikes in a U.S. and Israeli attack that killed Iran's supreme leader, the New York Times reported on March 1.
The American intelligence agency had been tracking Khamenei for months, the Times reported, citing people familiar with the operation.
The intelligence agency learned that a meeting of top Iranian officials was set for Feb. 28 morning at a leadership compound in the heart of Tehran.
Washington and Tel Aviv originally planned to launch strikes on Iran at night, but officials adjusted the plan based on the CIA intelligence, according to the Times.
The U.S. gave the information to Israel, who planned to carry out the attack on Iranian leadership, the newspaper reported.
The operation began about 6 a.m. in Israel (04:00 GMT), and long-range missiles struck the compound about 9:40 a.m., the Times said.
Senior Iranian national security officials were in one building at the compound and Khamenei was in a nearby building.
In addition to Khamenei, two top Iranian military leaders were killed in the bombing: The chief of the Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Pakpour, and another top security adviser, Ali Shamkhani, Iran's judiciary confirmed
The Wall Street Journal also reported that the strike was executed with the help of “Claude,” an AI system developed by Anthropic, just hours after the federal government announced it was ending its contract with the company, citing security concerns.
Sources familiar with the situation told the paper that military commands worldwide, including U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, employ Claude for tasks such as intelligence analysis, target selection, and combat scenario simulations.
