Behind the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was months of intelligence gathering to pinpoint the dictator’s day-to-day movements and patterns.
The CIA learned that Khamenei would be attending a meeting with other senior Iranian officials at a leadership compound in central Tehran, a person briefed on the matter told MS NOW. Shortly before Israel launched the fatal strike that killed Khamenei, U.S. intelligence officials shared his whereabouts with their Israeli counterparts.
The intelligence agency had been tracking Khamenei’s movements for months, the person said. The revelations offer a window into the level of detailed planning that pre-empted Saturday’s coordinated airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel against Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks also led to the deaths of “dozens of senior figures” in the regime.
The New York Times first reported on the CIA’s role. Khamenei, who was 86, was in power for nearly four decades in Iran, retaining near-total control and repression of his critics and dissidents. The late former leader was also the architect of a coalition of militant groups informally called the “Axis of Resistance” — including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and Hamas in Gaza, along with smaller groups in Iraq — that are aligned against the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia to protect Iran’s influence in the region.
Thousands of people died — and human rights activists believe the death toll to be higher — after participating in mass protests against Khamenei’s oppressive crackdown and the country’s collapsing economy. Khamenei accused the protesters of acting on behalf of President Donald Trump, who repeatedly vowed to intervene militarily to stop the government executions.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which cross-checks collected data with people on the ground, estimates that more than 7,000 people died during the demonstrations, which began in December and continued into February.
In a pre-recorded address released Sunday, Trump described Khamenei as a “wretched and vile man.” He continued, “He had the blood of hundreds and even thousands of Americans on his hands, and was responsible for the slaughter of countless thousands of innocent people all across many countries.”
Retaliatory strikes by Iran on Israel and U.S. military bases in the region are fueling fears of a prolonged conflict. Three U.S. service members were killed, and several others were injured in an attack in Kuwait, U.S. Central Command revealed on Sunday.
Top administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, are slated to hold a classified briefing with lawmakers on Monday to offer an update on Iran to the leadership on relevant committees from both parties, a House Armed Services Committee lawmaker told MS NOW.
Reaction to the strikes has mostly fallen along party lines, with Democrats criticizing Trump’s decision to move forward with a large-scale military operation in Iran without prior approval from Congress. Still, there is bipartisan acknowledgment that the Iranian regime poses a serious threat to the Middle East and its own citizens.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned in an interview with MS NOW’S “The Weekend” that Khamenei’s successor “may be even further to the right” and “more dangerous than the current regime.”
Akayla Gardner is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.
David Rohde
David Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News.