Inside Operation Epic Fury: How was Israel capable of strike the Ayatollah’s compound regardless of Iran’s fearsome air defences?
On the latest episode of the Daily Mail’s War on Tape, foreign correspondent Chris Pleasance breaks down the opening salvo of the Iran war, which saw Ayatollah Khamenei killed in a ‘decapitation’ strike.
At 9:45 am local time last Saturday, the US and Israel launched a joint bombing campaign of Iran, with the stated aim of crippling the Islamic Republic enough to provoke regime change.
The first twelve hours of America’s Operation Epic Fury and Israel’s Operation Roaring Lion proved a devastating success. Around 900 strikes hit multiple pieces of key military infrastructure, including IRGC bases, ports and nuclear sites.
For the US and Israel, the crowning glory of the early stages of the conflict was undoubtedly Khamenei’s death. The Ayatollah and multiple high ranking members of his regime died after Israeli F-16 fighter jets managed to penetrate Iran’s fearsome air defence network and turned Leadership House into rubble.
On the latest episode of the Daily Mail’s War on Tape, foreign correspondent Chris Pleasance breaks down the opening salvo of the Iran war
For the US and Israel, the crowning glory of the early stages of the conflict was undoubtedly Khamenei’s death
The Ayatollah and multiple high ranking members of his regime died after Israeli F-16 fighter jets managed to penetrate Iran’s fearsome air defence network
Show host Pleasance outlined the two leading theories for how the US and Israel were able to disable Iran’s air defence network with such ease despite years of preparation for an attack.
He explained: ‘For the attack to get through, Iran’s air defences had to be disabled – we don’t exactly know how this happened.
‘One way could have been an initial strike by US and Israeli F-35s, flying from Jordan and the Lincoln aircraft carrier – as well as the Nevatim air base.
‘The F-35 is a stealth jet, almost invisible to enemy radar. They are designed to hunt down and destroy anti-air systems.
‘They would likely have been joined by F-22s. These are also stealth aircraft but with a slightly different role. They are air superiority fighters, protecting the F-35 from any Iranian jets trying to shoot them down.
‘Once Iran’s defences were destroyed, the way would have been cleared for the follow-up strike.’
Alternatively, a cyber attack could have crippled Iran’s air defences without a single plane leaving the ground – a tactic well within the combined arsenal of Mossad and the CIA, whose intelligence had already proved decisive in choosing the precise moment to strike.
Listen to the latest episode of the Daily Mail’s War on Tape by clicking here
A daytime assault would ordinarily raise eyebrows. But Israel knew exactly when Khamenei would be gathered with his most senior commanders and that intelligence was enough for Trump to move the entire operation forward by hours.
‘The US and Israel are masters at this kind of warfare’, Pleasance said. ‘They unleashed the Stuxnet virus on Iran sometime before 2010.’
Although never officially attributed to any state, Stuxnet destroyed around 1,000 Iranian centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear facility, making the systems tear themselves apart while appearing to operate normally, setting Tehran’s nuclear ambitions back by years.
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