Voices Pushpesh Pant Adhirath Sethi Ravi Shankar Ganesh Saili Sheila Kumar Swami Sukhabodhananda THE new sunday express MAGAZINE Buffet People Wellness Books Food Art & Culture Entertainment june 29 2025 SUNDAY PAGES 12 The Sword Of David How Israel's Spy Agency Mossad Crippled Iran and Killed Its Top Officials I By RAVI SHANKAR t was a battle planned and fought in the shadows and unleashed with missiles and spycraft. The real winner of the conflict against the looming nuclear threat from Iran—the godfather of terrorism in the Middle East—is Israel’s ruthless spy agency Mossad. The 86-year-old Ayatollah Khamenei, the patron of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, had vowed to destroy the tiny Jewish state. Now Hamas and Hezbollah have been emasculated by the Israeli Army The Houthis are reeling under US-Israeli air strikes. As . Israeli bombs rained down on Iran, and its terror planners died hunkered down in bunkers they thought were impenetrable, Israel turned out not to be so tiny at all. This time Goliath was on its side; a giant who delivered powerful blow to Khamenei and his Caucus of Terror. Mossad—Hebrew for Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations—created almost 80 years ago in the crucible of the Holocaust and the vengeance of the Hagannah established its credentials with whip-smart tradecraft, ultra-modern tech and focused fury to frustrate the vindictive plans of Israel’s enemies. Operation Rising Lion, which shattered Iranian facilities and eliminated much of its top leadership, was Old Testament in wrath and scope. Fear began on Thursday June 12. Israel warned residents of Tehran’s District 18 to evacuate the city Hours . later, at about 03.30 local time on June 13, Israeli Air Force (IAF) launched a barrage of missiles wiping out the heads of the Iranian terror Hydra. Dead were Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the feared Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who had threatened to “open the gates of hell” if attacked, Gholamali Rashid, IRGC high-ranking official who coordinated joint Iranian military operations, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, nuclear scientist Fereydoon Abbasi, former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, head of the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, Abdulhamid Minouchehr, head of nuclear engineering and Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, a nuclear engineering professor. They were gathered in an underground facility to plot a strike against Israel. But Israel struck first. So far, 14 nuclear physicists, chemists and engineers have been taken out. Mossad is Iran’s nemesis of dread. The transcript of a leaked call between a mysterious Israeli operative and an Iranian general that transpired on June 13 was published in The Washington Post. In the recording, the general is notified in the Persian language that he has 12 hours to flee with his family before Israel kills him. “I can advise you now, you have 12 hours to escape with your wife and child,” the operative’s voice has been altered to protect his identity “Otherwise, you’re on our . list right now.” The call began with the agent informing the general that he comes from a country that “sent Salami, Bagheri and Shamkhani to hell,” referring to three senior Iranian leaders killed by Israel in its bombing campaign. “We’re closer to you than your own neck vein. Put this in your head. May God protect you,” notifies the voice in the audio. The general is told to send the video via Telegram. He asks where to send the video, though whether he made one or sent it isn’t clear. It is reported that more such calls were made to twoand three-tier generals to sow discord and fear. Iranian nerves were frayed after IAF aircraft and drones devastated the Shahran oil depot, two major gas fields in Bushehr province, Iran’s defence ministry complex, the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, and an underground storage and launching site for surface-to-surface missiles and cruise missiles in western Iran. Isfahan, location of one of Iran’s nuclear conversion plant, was almost completely wrecked, along with a large air base and a major missile production complex. In April last year, Israel had already damaged Isfahan’s air-defence system. The IAF also devastated the underground nuclear plant at Natanz, where nearly 20,000 centrifuges were stored for uranium enrichment, thereby dealing a serious blow to Iran’s nuclear goals. Mossad’s hard work finally paid off last Saturday when 125 US planes dropped bunker-busting bombs on three Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan—seven B-2 stealth bombers, which took off from the US for an 18-hour journey to Iran, participated in the assault. Twenty- four cruise missiles struck the Isfahan site, fired from an American submarine. However, analysts doubt whether Trump’s bombs were effective enough to wipe out Fordo’s nuclear assets, which are protected inside a concrete facility deep inside a mountain—the Iranians are world leaders in manufacturing a special type of concrete that can withstand any pressure or bombing. To raise the morale of the Iranian resistance and show them the regime is not omnipotent, Israeli jets targeted Evin Prison, where political prisoners and critics of the Republic were kept. On the first day itself, thanks to Mossad agents on the ground, IAF had full control of Iranian skies; Mossad commandos, operating in small teams, launched drones that successfully targeted Iran’s air defence systems. They created a danger-free air corridor for the IAF leading through Jordan, Syria and Iraq to western Iran. None of this would have been possible without Israel’s intelligence agency Whatever were the methods . and complexities of the espionage effort, the intelligence mission had three objectives: 1. Assemble and launch drones from the warehouses to destroy Iran’s air defence systems, especially the ones that escaped damage in the 2024 attacks 2. Support IAF by giving the planes targets, location of weapon sites, identification and timings to take out Iranian nuclear scientists 3. Gather real time intelligence for strikes Mossad spies were the vanguard of Israel’s campaign against Iran’s nuclear personnel working on its nuclear effort—the “weapon group” on the third stage of building a nuke. Three days before Israel launched the strikes with Donald Trump’s full knowledge and support, scores of elite Israeli operatives infiltrated sensitive areas of Iran. Trump, it seems, was playing by Mossad’s initial motto: “By way of deception, you shall do war.” The agency’s campaign against Iran had the precision of an Einstein equation and the secrecy of Freemasons. In the middle of June, Israeli agents reached pre-prepared locations all over Iran, aided by local helpers hostile to the ayatollah’s brutal rule. Meeting points, vehicles, safe houses, communication equipment, weapons assembly factories, and warehouses stocked with weapons and ammunition were already in place. Mossad had already smuggled drone components into Iran. Just before the execution of the final enterprise, Israeli operatives coded “blue and white”, had stopped operating directly inside Iran to avoid risk of capture and torture, but provided logistical support with their detailed knowledge of hostile terrain. Part of the mission was remotely operated from outside Iran. To sabotage the enemy’s air defences and missile systems, precision weapons brought into Iran by Mossad agents—especially the small, armed drones—were unleashed against Iranian surface-toair missile sites at a close range of 3-5 Turn to page 2 Three days before Israel launched the strikes with Donald Trump’s full knowledge and support, scores of elite Israeli operatives infiltrated sensitive areas of Iran THEIR OWN MASTERS: Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ali Khamenei