The CIA pinpointed a Saturday morning meeting of Iran's top leadership in Tehran that included Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, prompting the U.S. and Israel to shift the timing of their attack before Israel struck the compound.
Iranian state media later reported Khamenei was killed.
The CIA had been tracking Khamenei for months and grew more confident about his locations and patterns, people familiar with the operation said.
The agency then learned that senior Iranian officials would gather Saturday morning at a leadership compound in the heart of Tehran and that Khamenei would be there.
The U.S. and Israel had planned to strike at night but adjusted the timing to capitalize on information about the gathering.
People briefed on the intelligence said the CIA passed information described as high fidelity on Khamenei's position to Israel.
Israel, using U.S. intelligence and its own, carried out an operation it had been planning for months to target Iran's senior leadership.
The meeting site was described as a compound housing offices tied to the Iranian presidency, the supreme leader, and Iran's National Security Council.
Israel assessed that the gathering would include senior defense and security officials, including Mohammad Pakpour, commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Aziz Nasirzadeh, defense minister; and Adm. Ali Shamkhani, head of the Military Council.
The list also included Seyyid Majid Mousavi, commander of the Guards' aerospace force; and Mohammad Shirazi, deputy intelligence minister.
The operation began around 6 a.m. in Israel, with fighter jets taking off from their bases.
Two hours later, at 9:40 a.m. in Tehran, long-range missiles struck the compound. Senior Iranian national security officials were in one building, and Khamenei was in another nearby building at the time.
An Israeli defense official said the strikes were carried out simultaneously at several locations in Tehran and that Israel achieved tactical surprise.
Newsmax reached out to the White House and the CIA for comment.
Iran's state news agency IRNA confirmed the deaths of Shamkhani and Pakpour on Sunday.
Follow-on strikes hit locations where Iranian intelligence leaders were staying. Iran's top intelligence officer escaped, but Iran's intelligence services suffered heavy losses in their senior ranks.
In June, President Trump asserted that the U.S. knew where Khamenei was hiding and could have killed him.
A former U.S. official said that intelligence was based on the same network used in Saturday's operation, and others briefed on the intelligence said U.S. tracking improved after last year's 12-day war.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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