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Israel Targeted Iranian Leaders by Following the Cellphones of Their Bodyguards

(New York Times) Farnaz Fassihi - On June 16, the fourth day of Iran's war with Israel, Iran's Supreme National Security Council gathered for an emergency meeting in a bunker 100 feet below a mountain slope in western Tehran. None of the officials carried mobile phones, knowing that Israeli intelligence could track them. Israeli jets dropped six bombs on top of the bunker soon after the meeting began, but remarkably, nobody in the bunker was killed. Iranian officials then discovered a devastating security lapse: The Israelis had been led to the meeting by hacking the phones of bodyguards who had accompanied the Iranian leaders to the site. "We know senior officials and commanders did not carry phones, but their interlocutors, security guards and drivers had phones; they did not take precautions seriously, and this is how most of them were traced," said Sasan Karimi, former deputy vice president for strategy in Iran's government. The June 16 attack destroyed the meeting room, which soon filled with debris, smoke and dust, and the power was cut, according to accounts that emerged afterward. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian found a narrow opening through the debris, where a sliver of light and air was coming through, he said. Three senior officials said the president dug through the debris with his bare hands, eventually making enough of a space for everyone to crawl out one by one.
2025-08-31 00:00:00
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