Israeli officers have confirmed that Mossad constructed and operated a secret drone base inside Iran, enabling precision strikes that crippled Iran’s nuclear program and eradicated prime IRGC commanders.
On June 13, 2025, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a sweeping air and drone strike marketing campaign focusing on Iran’s nuclear websites, army belongings, and senior management. With over 200 plane and 330 munitions hitting greater than 100 targets, it was the biggest assault on Iran for the reason that Nineteen Eighties. However past its scale, the brilliance of the operation lay in its covert dimension: Israeli intelligence had secretly positioned drone programs inside Iran, enabling precision strikes that paralyzed air defenses earlier than the primary jets arrived.
The operation adopted a three-pronged strategy that protection analysts describe as a paradigm shift in fashionable warfare:
Section 1: Pre-Positioned Belongings Activation
Israeli commandos had embedded precision-guided drones and explosives inside Iran months earlier, together with close to Tehran. These dormant programs, hidden from radar attributable to their inside placement, have been activated to strike air-defense radars and communications nodes—overwhelming Iran’s early-warning programs with low-observable threats and triggering what planners name “operational dislocation.”
Section 2: Automobile-Based mostly Strike Methods
Hid inside civilian automobiles throughout Iran, Israeli-embedded launch platforms fired highly effective munitions at key defensive targets. This tactic neutralized air defenses from inside, clearing the trail for incoming plane.
Section 3: Typical Air Marketing campaign
Over 200 Israeli fighter jets—many F-35 Adirs with standoff munitions—carried out precision strikes on greater than 100 nuclear and army websites. With Iran’s command programs disrupted and defenses degraded, Israeli plane operated with close to impunity.
The marketing campaign was the product of years of sustained intelligence preparation and real-time ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) dominance. A senior Israeli safety official stated, “The Mossad labored with an enormous variety of individuals, a mass of brokers deep inside Iran, working on the highest stage of penetration possible. A few of these brokers have been retrained as commando fighters to hold out mission-critical operations.”
Probably the most outstanding parts was Israel’s capacity to embed autonomous weapons programs straight inside Iran. Mossad operatives established covert drone and missile launch websites close to key army belongings, together with a confirmed base close to Tehran. These inside belongings struck surface-to-surface missile launchers in a single day, eliminating threats earlier than Israel’s essential assault started. Officers now regard this inside strike functionality as one of many boldest and only options of the operation.
Amongst these killed have been IRGC commander Hossein Salami, Armed Forces Chief of Workers Main Basic Mohammad Bagheri, IRGC Aerospace Pressure commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, and nuclear scientists Fereydoon Abbasi and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi. Many of the IRGC Air Pressure management was worn out at an underground command middle—a decapitation strike that eradicated a long time of institutional data in a single blow.
Important nuclear websites, together with Natanz, Fordow, and Khondab, have been closely broken. Strikes spanned key provinces similar to Tehran, Kermanshah, Tabriz, Esfahan, and Hamadan. Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed the assaults set Iran’s nuclear program again by years, although this stays to be independently verified.
The strikes additionally focused Iran’s crucial vitality infrastructure, together with the South Pars gasoline subject and Fajr Jam refinery—signaling Israel’s willingness to hit each army and financial lifelines.
Operation Rising Lion stands on the shoulders of an extended file of meticulously deliberate Mossad operations. Within the Nineteen Seventies, Operation Bayonet, also called “Wrath of God”, systematically focused Black September operatives answerable for the 1972 Munich bloodbath, eliminating them throughout Europe and the Center East over twenty years. In September 2024, Mossad executed a cutting-edge supply-chain sabotage: 1000’s of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies, covertly modified with explosives, have been remotely detonated throughout Lebanon and Syria, killing dozens and paralyzing militant communications.
Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault on Israel, Mossad accelerated high-value strikes. On January 2, 2024, a drone strike in Beirut killed Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri alongside senior army commanders. Then on April 1, 2024, an airstrike on Iran’s consulate annex in Damascus killed Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a prime Quds Pressure basic, and far of Iran’s IRGC command in Syria.
These high-impact missions culminated in Operation Rising Lion, a marketing campaign that redefined fashionable battle via deep infiltration, autonomous strike capabilities, and synchronized real-time execution. Analysts now cite it as a mannequin for future operations—demonstrating how precision applied sciences and human intelligence can dismantle hardened targets sooner than any conventional assault. Reviving the spirit of World Battle II–period “ungentlemanly warfare,” Israel has changed sabotage groups and bomber raids with stealth drones and fifth-generation fighters, ushering in a brand new commonplace for strategic shock.
