Israel’s highly successful attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons enterprise and other regime targets was the product of years of preparation. Overnight, while the world was watching Israel Air Force strikes throughout Iran, on the ground, Israeli commandos from the IDF and Mossad were engaged in their own war. Precision-guided missiles, smuggled into Iran, attacked Iranian air defense installations and opened the way for Israeli strike fighters. Drones that were launched from a clandestine base built inside targeted key Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists.
In a sequence of events resembling Ukraine’s destruction of a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, Israel used guided missiles mounted on civilian vehicles parked near Iranian air defense installations to cut a path through Iranian air defenses that allowed the IAF to strike targets with impunity. The mobile missiles were backed up, incredibly, by a fixed drone base Israel had constructed near Tehran, which attacked air defense sites and decapitated Iran’s military leadership at a critical juncture. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, the ironically named Hossein Salami, Armed Forces Chief Mohammad Bagheri, and Army deputy commander Gholamali Rashid were among the casualties. Six of Iran’s top nuclear scientists were also killed by drones.
Hellbound and Down 