The breakthrough came when U.S. intelligence learned that a rare meeting of Iran’s senior political and military leadership would take place Saturday morning.By World Israel News StaffNew details reported by The New York Times reveal that months of U.S. intelligence tracking led directly to the strike that eliminated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the opening phase of the joint U.S.–Israel military campaign.According to officials familiar with the operation, the CIA had monitored Khamenei for months, gradually building confidence in his movements, locations, and security patterns.The breakthrough came when U.S. intelligence learned that a rare meeting of Iran’s senior political and military leadership would take place Saturday morning at a central leadership compound housing offices tied to the presidency, the supreme leader, and Iran’s National Security Council.Most critically, intelligence indicated that Khamenei himself would be present.The United States and Israel had originally planned to launch the strike overnight under cover of darkness. However, after receiving confirmation of the gathering, leaders in Washington and Jerusalem decided to alter the timing and carry out a daylight operation to exploit what officials viewed as a unique operational opportunity.At the time of the strike, senior Iranian national security officials were gathered in one building inside the compound, while Khamenei was located in a nearby structure, according to the report. Israeli aircraft struck multiple locations simultaneously in what one Israeli defense official described as a coordinated effort targeting the core of Iran’s political-security leadership.Israeli assessments indicated the meeting included some of the regime’s most senior figures, among them Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Pakpour, Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, senior security adviser Ali Shamkhani, senior intelligence officials, and additional members of Iran’s defense establishment.On Sunday morning, the IDF officially confirmed that the operation had eliminated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, describing him as “the father of the plan to destroy the State of Israel” and the central figure behind Iran’s decades-long campaign against Israel and the West.Additional statements from the IDF detailed the elimination of multiple senior regime figures tied to Iran’s military, intelligence, and advanced weapons programs, including leadership connected to the SPND organization responsible for weapons development and senior advisers within Khamenei’s security apparatus.Following the operation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “the plan to destroy Israel is gone,” adding that there were “growing signs that the tyrant Khamenei may also be gone.”U.S. President Donald Trump also issued a lengthy public statement after the strike, declaring that Khamenei was “one of the most evil people in history” and calling the operation justice for victims of Iranian-backed violence worldwide. Trump said advanced intelligence tracking and close cooperation with Israel made the operation possible and described the moment as a historic opportunity for the Iranian people to reclaim their country. He added that military operations would continue “as long as necessary” to achieve broader regional stability and peace.Khamenei, 86, had ruled Iran since 1989 and had increasingly operated from heavily secured locations amid growing regional tensions and fears of assassination. His death, alongside the reported elimination of numerous senior security officials, represents what analysts describe as the most significant leadership decapitation strike in the history of the Islamic Republic.The operation, enabled by months of intelligence gathering and a last-minute timing adjustment, marks one of the deepest levels of operational coordination ever revealed between U.S. and Israeli intelligence and military forces.The post New details reveal CIA role in strike that killed Khamenei appeared first on World Israel News.