Mossad agents in secret mission to blow up Iranian missiles

Telegraph

20 hours ago

Mossad agents snuck into Iran and set up a factory to build explosive drones that were used to cripple Tehran's air defences ahead of Friday's strikes, intelligence officials said.
The drones were activated and used to attack missile launchers pointed at Israel as the IDF launched its overnight raid aimed at crippling Iran's nuclear programme.
The operation, which would have been years in the making, has the hallmarks of the Mossad intelligence agenc y, which is famed for its clandestine activities.
It would have involved Israeli intelligence agents sneaking into Iran to build the base well in advance of Friday's attack, pre-empting Iran's probable retaliation. Vehicles carrying weapons systems were also smuggled into Iran, a security official told The Times of Israel.
By destroying Iran's air defences, the explosive drones gave Israeli planes supremacy in the skies and freedom to carry out Friday's air strikes that killed several top generals while hitting about 100 targets including nuclear facilities.
Pre-deployed Mossad commando units were indeed working inside Iran, said the British-Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM).
Mossad units 'were involved in launching precision-guided munitions that targeted Iranian surface-to-air missiles, other air defences, as well as ground-to-ground missiles that would have been used in a retaliatory strike against Israel', BICOM said.
Footage emerged purporting to show exactly those activities – Israeli agents setting guided missile launchers that were then used to take out Iran's air defences.
The operatives also launched surface-to-surface missiles and explosive drones at targets near Tehran, including a truck carrying missiles, the footage suggests.
The black-and-white footage shows armed figures with their faces pixelated, crouching in an area of open ground.
Strategic capabilities
Israeli intelligence officials have said publication of the material was designed to illustrate the breadth and depth of Israel's clandestine capabilities and to discourage escalation.
If what Israeli authorities are claiming is indeed true, it is a stunning demonstration of strategic capabilities in what amounted to a multi-pronged attack combining surveillance, intelligence and firepower.
It also shows how far Israel is willing to go in confronting Tehran and its potential nuclear threat.
'Emerging reports about more unconventional activity by Mossad are a reminder of Israel's expertise in covert operations, its penetration of the Iranian security establishment and its agility in planning ahead with imaginative operations which can be executed at short notice,' said Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute.
Setting up such key secret attack infrastructure within the territory of Iran, Israel's number one rival, would probably have involved multiple undercover missions.
It would also have required targeted intelligence of where exactly Iran's own military and weapons infrastructure was located, allowing the accurate placement of various weapons systems to hit those strategic targets.
The attack has killed at least three of Iran's most powerful men – including its most senior military leadership – further crippling the Islamic Republic's ability. It has not only suffered a blow to its missile capabilities but it has now also lost significant architects that would have designed and executed a response.
'The breadth and scale of these strikes…suggest this operation is intended to not just dissuade Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons, but also cripple any potential military response and even to destabilise the regime,' said Mr Savill.
Mossad has a history of carrying out bold operations on enemy soil, especially in Iran.
In 2020 it helped the US to assassinate Major General Qassim Suleimani, who was Iran's top security and intelligence commander.
In 2022, two assassins on motorcycles gunned down Col Sayyad Khodaei, an IRGC officer, and in 2024 Israel killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's political leader, in Tehran by planting an explosive inside an IRGC guest house.
Israel also dismantled the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful proxy in the region, in a series of strikes in 2024.
This included elaborate, coordinated attacks that saw thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by the group detonate, killing dozens and injuring thousands.
Mossad had infiltrated the supply line and planted explosives inside the devices 10 years before they were detonated.
With its latest strikes, Israel is signalling that far more is to come.
'We are a few hours into the operation…. this is something that, when we spoke about it six months ago, seemed like fantasy,' said Maj Gen Oded Basiuk, Israel's head of operations directorate.
'Thus achievement is the result of planning, drills and thorough work by those sitting here, and also by those who aren't.'