The CIA found out about a secret meeting that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was going to attend on Saturday, February 28. This information triggered a US military operation called “Operation Epic Fury.”
The New York Times reported that American and Israeli spies had been tracking Khamenei’s movements for months. They discovered that he and several top Iranian officials were going to meet at his palace on Saturday morning. The US and Israel decided to move their attack forward to use this opportunity, and Iran was caught completely off guard.
The strike killed Khamenei, who was 86 years old and had ruled Iran for nearly 40 years.
The Attack
Originally, the US and Israel had planned to strike at night. But after learning about the palace meeting, Israeli fighter jets loaded with long-range missiles took off from military bases at 6 am. The missiles hit the palace a few hours later, while the Iranian officials were in a different part of the building.
Along with Khamenei, the attack also killed:
- Two top military commanders — Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani and IRGC Major General Mohammad Pakpour
- Khamenei’s daughter, granddaughter, daughter-in-law, and son-in-law
Iran Strikes Back
After the attack, Iran launched revenge strikes across the Middle East, causing widespread chaos. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed they had hit the USS Abraham Lincoln, a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. However, the Pentagon denied this, saying: missiles were fired, but none came close to the ship.
Iran then targeted multiple countries including the UAE, Qatar, Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, and Saudi Arabia with missiles and drones. Hezbollah also fired missiles at Israel, after which Israel struck Beirut, Lebanon, to target the group’s military infrastructure.
