Inside Israel’s Operation Rising Lion: How Mossad spec ops smuggled weapons into Iran and set up secret drone factory near the capital in years-long mission before commandos unleashed Trojan Horse attack
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Israel launched a blistering assault on Iran overnight, striking 100 targets including Tehran’s nuclear and military sites and killing senior military figures.
The strikes came as a shock to onlookers, who had predicted that a vague threat of kinetic action would be enough to gain leverage in talks over a new nuclear accord.
But with startling efficiency, Israeli intelligence is said to have gone behind enemy lines to disable Iranian defences, clearing the way for the Israeli Air Force (IAF).
‘Operation Rising Lion’ is said to have been ‘years’ in the making, the culmination of careful research and planning by the military, Mossad and Israel’s defence industries.
Israeli security sources have now revealed how commandos infiltrated Iran with ‘special weapons’ to knock out Tehran’s defences as jets flew overhead.
Elite soldiers allegedly smuggled in precision-guided weapons systems near Surface to Air Missile batteries to paralyse any Iranian response.
As some 200 fighter jets unleashed hell on the Natanz nuclear facility, pre-positioned weapons fired to disable Iran’s protective shield.
Mossad had reportedly loaded cars with explosives across Iran, detonating to further hamper Iranian air defences.
And in a brazen stealth operation, Israeli intelligence was said to have set up a secret base of drones laden with explosives, tasked with striking defences near Tehran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the overnight strikes had struck at the ‘heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme’.
They also killed Iran’s highest-ranking military officer, armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri, and the head of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, Iranian media reported.
It appeared to be the most significant attack Iran has faced since its 1980s war with Iraq, and raises the prospect of an all-out war between the two bitter adversaries.
Netanyahu said strikes would ‘continue as many days as it takes’, and secondary strikes were reported in Shiraz, Kermanshah and Tabriz today.
Experts believe that Israel has the appetite and capacity for more strikes – and say ‘what comes next may define the regional security order for years to come’.
Video shared by the agency today showed what appeared to be special forces dressed entirely in black and equipped with night vision goggles in a remote, undisclosed location
Drone footage shows Mossad’s operation targeting air defence and missile launchers
The Mossad spy agency reveals footage showing its actions against Iranian air defences
Smoke rises up after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025
How Israel paralysed Iranian defences
The operation, codenamed ‘Rising Lion’, was years in the making, a senior Israeli security source told Israel National News.
To bring it together, Israel’s military – the IDF – worked closely with Mossad and Israel’s defence industries to coordinate simultaneous strikes with the attacks on defence infrastructure.
Mossad commandos are understood to have worked behind enemy lines in central Iran to topple surface-to-air missile batteries threatening the Israeli strikes.
Video shared by the agency today showed what appeared to be special forces dressed entirely in black and equipped with night vision goggles in a remote, undisclosed location.
Israel’s defence sector was said to have also offered advanced technologies to help carry out the sabotage missions.
Explosives concealed in civilian vehicles across Iran detonated overnight, degrading Iran’s air defences as explosive drones targeted surface-to-surface defences.
The secret base of drones, set up in the centre of Iran, was able to cripple missile launchers at the extensive Esfajabad base near the capital.
Video shared by Mossad purported to show drones targeting vehicles inside the complex. One clip showed what appeared to be a drone closing in on what appeared to be a mobile launcher.
Footage shared later by the IAF was said to show aerial strikes on ballistic missiles ‘aimed at the state of Israel’ in Iran, location unknown. The military said it had carried out a large-scale strike against Iran’s air defences, destroying ‘dozens of radars and surface-to-air missile launchers’.
According to the IDF, the jets dropped more than 330 ‘various munitions’ in the first wave.
Explosions were soon reported in cities including Tehran, Bandar Abbas and Kermanshah.
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei accused Israel of targeting residential areas. State media said residential buildings in Tehran were hit as well, killing a number of civilians including women and children.
Strikes also rocked the nuclear facilities in Natanz, Khondab and Khorramabad.
An Israeli military official said the strikes had achieved a great deal but assessments were continuing and Israel was prepared to keep the operation going for days. Among the targets were ballistic missiles pointed towards Israel, they added.
Vehicles appear to be targeted by drones in clips shared since the attacks
Video appears to show attacks on military equipment in Iran overnight
The operation, codenamed ‘Rising Lion’, was years in the making, a senior Israeli security source said
Smoke and flames rise, following Israeli strikes on Iran, in Piranshahrm, on June 13, 2025
People look over damage to buildings in Nobonyad Square following Israeli airstrikes on June 13, 2025 in Tehran, Iran
How Israel crippled Iran’s nuclear infrastructure
Iran had long prepared for possible strikes on Natanz. It had cited the possibility of an air attack in its decision to shelter the site with some 22 metres of earth and 2.5 metres of concrete.
Another 12 metres of reinforced concrete shielded the facility from attack, though Israel had already proven the devastating effect of its ‘bunker buster’ bombs in Gaza and Lebanon.
In 2023, satellite imagery appeared to show a new construction underway to the south, which experts said would be so deep underground that US weapons likely could not reach it.
But the Israeli military said that its overnight strikes had penetrated through to the facility’s underground uranium enrichment centrifuges.
‘The underground area of the site was damaged. This area contains a multi-storey enrichment hall with centrifuges, electrical rooms and additional supporting infrastructure,’ the military said in a statement.
‘In addition, critical infrastructure enabling the site’s continuous operation and the Iranian regime’s ongoing efforts to obtain nuclear weapons were targeted,’ it added.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said Natanz had sustained damage but no casualties had been reported. The International Atomic Energy Agency said there was no increase in radiation levels at the Natanz nuclear site, citing information provided by Iranian authorities.
Darya Dolzikova, Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, assessed: ‘Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear programme do not look to have been simply a signalling exercise or as a way of generating additional leverage US-Iran negotiations.
‘Their targeting of Iran’s main enrichment facility and a number of senior Iranian scientists suggests an intent to inflict serious damage on the programme and to roll back Iran’s ability to push towards weaponisation.
‘It is too early to tell to what extent Israel may have succeeded in that.’
Notably, she said, Iran appears not to have targeted the main enrichment facility at Fordow – nor a number of other key facilities across the country. Fordow is believed to be built between 80 and 90 metres underground.
Israel did attack the Parachin military base, about 30km southeast of Tehran, which it also struck in October. The site had once held weapons-relevant research and may or may not have still be operational.
Dr Andreas Krieg, Associate Professor of Defence Studies at King’s College London, told MailOnline: ‘These strikes can set the nuclear program back years but will not ultimately destroy it.
‘This is a very different scenario from Operation Opera when Israel destroyed an Iraqi reactor in 1981. The Iranian program is more resilient, and it will require the Israelis to keep striking targets continuously for days.
‘Iran’s air defences are all but destroyed and Israel has nearly complete control of the air, which makes these continuous sorties possible. The greatest concern for Israel will be the retaliation from Iran.’
Satellite image courtesy of Planet Labs PBC shows the Natanz nuclear facilities before strikes
A view shows Natanz after the Israeli airstrikes overnight
Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz in 300 kms 186 (miles) south of capital Tehran, Iran, Monday April, 9, 2007
How Israel toppled Iran’s military leadership
Beyond hitting nuclear targets, the strikes also managed to cripple the Iranian military’s top brass.
Strikes killed Iran’s highest-ranking military officer, Mohammad Bagheri, and IRGC chief, Hossein Salami, according to Iranian media.
Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei today named General Ahmad Vahidi as the new commander of the Revolutionary Guards, succeeding Salami.
Amichai Stein, a reporter for Israeli outlet i24 News, said that the majority of the senior leadership of the IRGC’s air force had been killed at a meeting at an underground headquarters.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed today that its aerospace commander, Major General Amirali Hajizadeh, had also been killed in the strike on their command centre.
And the Tasnim news agency said six nuclear scientists were killed in the attacks.
To coordinate the assassinations, the IDF and Mossad reportedly worked together to gather intelligence on senior defence officials and nuclear scientists.
Matthew Savill, Director of Military Sciences at RUSI, said today that the breadth and scale of the strikes suggest the operation was intended not only to dissuade Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons, but to also cripple any potential military response – and potentially even destabilise the regime.
‘Israel has once again demonstrated its considerable conventional military superiority, and the size of the force allegedly assembled for this series of attacks represents the overwhelming bulk of their longer-range strike aircraft,’ he assessed.
‘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.’
Savill suggested that Israel would struggle to keep up extended strikes over such a distance – but ‘for now, they certainly have the capacity to go again’.
Chief of the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri (right) with IRGC Hossein Salami (left), both reportedly killed in Israeli strikes overnight
Smoke billowing from a site reportedly targeted by an Israeli strike in Tehran
Buildings in residential areas across Tehran are damaged following Israeli strikes
Will Iran now be able to mount a response?
Dr Burcu Ozcelik, Senior Research Fellow, Middle East Security, at the Royal United Services Institute, said the attack was unprecedented in scale.
‘Pandora’s box has been cast wide open with Israel’s sweeping overnight air campaign against Iranian targets—an escalation that risks reshaping the strategic landscape of the Middle East.
‘By targeting senior IRGC leadership and nuclear infrastructure deep inside Iranian territory, Israel has signalled a willingness to confront Tehran at a scale and depth previously unseen.’
‘The sheer depth and precision of the strikes—reaching into the heart of Tehran and eliminating key figures such as IRGC chief Major General Hossein Salami—underscore the extent of Israeli intelligence penetration and the degraded state of Iran’s air defence systems,’ she said.
‘For Tehran, this is not only a tactical loss but a profound strategic humiliation. The decapitation of senior command is expected to disrupt Iran’s decision-making architecture at a critical moment, complicating (but not completely discounting) any coordinated retaliatory response.’
Iran promised a harsh response to a barrage that killed the heads of both its armed forces and the powerful Revolutionary Guards, and Israel said it was trying to intercept about 100 drones launched towards Israeli territory in retaliation.
Speaking to Iran’s Fars news agency, an Iranian security source denied that Tehran had launched drones towards Israel, but added that retaliatory strikes ‘will take place in the near future’.
But Iran’s capability to mount an effective response is unclear.
‘What comes next may define the regional security order for years to come,’ Ozcelik concluded.
Markets responded quickly to the news, anticipating that a protracted conflict would affect Iran’s ability to produce oil – a lifeline for its staggered economy.
Oil prices surged 12 percent while stocks sank on the Israeli strikes.
Matthew Ryan, Head of Market Strategy at global financial services firm Ebury, said: ‘Thus far, at least, Israel has not directly targeted Iran’s oil supply, which appears to be unaffected.
‘The big fear for investors is that an escalation to the tensions will not only raise the risk of a prolonged conflict, but it could disrupt Iranian oil production.’
Experts had warned before the attack that strikes on oil facilities would risk hurting the cause of popular unrest against the regime within Iran, and neither Israel nor the US would benefit from directly punishing struggling civilians unsympathetic to the government.
The remains of an Iranian projectile that was headed for Israel after it fell in Syria’s southwestern Daraa province on June 13, 2025
The remains of an Iranian projectile that was headed for Israel after it fell in Syria’s southwestern Daraa province
Debris on cars in the Iranian capital of Tehran after the overnight strikes, on June 13
The clashes come against the backdrop of ongoing nuclear talks between the United States and Iran.
Officials told NBC before the attack that Israel had become more serious about striking as Washington and Tehran edged towards a deal that Israel found unpalatable.
On Thursday, the UN’s nuclear watchdog announced that Iran has failed to meet its nuclear non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years, likely to agitate talks.
Iran had said in response it would open a new uranium enrichment facility ‘in a secure location’.
Bracing for an attack, Tehran had warned that if talks do break down and ‘a conflict is imposed upon us’, they were prepared to target ‘all US bases in the host countries’.
The overnight strikes were the first against Tehran since October 2024, when the Israeli Air Force carried out its largest attack on Iran since the Iran-Iraq War.
Military sites, a UAV factory and missile production facilities were all targeted in three successful waves of attacks, crippling the country’s defense networks.
At the time, Israel avoided damaging Iranian oil infrastructure and nuclear facilities, targets then-US President Joe Biden had urged them to avoid.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Israel acted alone in its strikes overnight.
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that Iran had brought the attack on itself by resisting U.S. demands in talks to restrict its nuclear programme, and urged it to make a deal, ‘with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal’.
Iran said in a statement that Israel’s ‘cowardly’ attack showed why Iran had to insist on enrichment, nuclear technology and missile power.
Iran is a signatory to the global nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel is not, and is believed to have the Middle East’s sole nuclear arsenal.
