Israeli spies smuggled munitions into Iran in suitcases
Israel spent months smuggling drone parts, munitions and precision equipment in suitcases, shipping containers and lorries into Iran in preparation for Friday's surprise attacks.
Similar to Ukraine's recent covert operation in which agents launched kamikaze drones hidden in trucks at Russian bombers, Israel's spy agency had laid the groundwork to launch the bombings from inside Iran, people familiar with the operation told the Wall Street Journal.
Mossad smuggled explosive-rigged quadcopter drones and other precision-guided equipment over sea and land to cripple Iran's anti-aircraft missiles before the strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Citing former Mossad intelligence officers, Israeli military sources and unnamed persons familiar with the operation, the Wall Street Journal reported that small teams already in position near strategic sites took out a number of Iran's air-defence systems.
They targeted dozens of missile launchers after they had emerged from shelters and were preparing to fire on the more than 200 Israeli warplanes racing across Iran's skies.
F-35 jet fighters would eventually drop more than 330 munitions on over 100 targets, killing top military leaders and scientists in a strike Israel claimed was pre-emptive in order to damage the Islamic Republic's nuclear capacities.
On Saturday, Israel released footage purporting to show its agents on Iranian soil deploying the attack systems that it said managed to severely limit Iran's immediate response. The exact date or location of the videos could not be independently verified.
'This is the deepest distance that we have operated so far in Iran,' Effie Defrin, Israeli military spokesman, told the Wall Street Journal. 'We created aerial freedom of action.'
Mossad teams reportedly began preparing for the current drone operation years ago, using commercial trade to smuggle munitions and equipment into Iran, often without the knowledge of businesses whose cargo was being used as cover.
A secret drone base was set up near Tehran, and Mossad commando team leaders trained in third countries were then returned to Iran where they prepared with small teams on the ground in central Iran at various strategic anti-aircraft sites when Israel's attack began.
Iran has many more missiles than it does trucks to transport them, a battlefield bottleneck that Mossad took advantage of by hitting the surface-to-surface missile launchers while on trucks, or in the phase of being set up for launch.
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