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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/03/30/iran-israel-war-killings/
In Allied Campaign, Mission to Kill Top Iranians Fell to Israel
(Washington Post) Greg Miller - As U.S. and Israeli military commanders met to map out war with Iran, they deliberated over how to divide responsibility for an array of targets. It was clear from the outset that one grim mission would belong to Israel: hunting and killing Iran's leaders. Israel has pursued this assignment with ruthless efficiency, killing Iran's supreme leader in the opening salvo of the war and more than 250 other "senior Iranian officials" since, according to the Israeli military. The campaign relies on an apparatus that Israel spent decades building but transformed over the past several years to achieve new levels of lethal proficiency. Senior Israeli military and intelligence officials cited a proliferation of sources and surveillance capabilities inside Iran - regime insiders recruited to spy for Israel as well as cyber-penetrations of thousands of targets including street cameras and payment platforms. These and other streams of data are being scoured by a new, classified artificial intelligence platform programmed to extract clues to leaders' lives and movements. Israel's targeted killing tactics - bombs planted months before being detonated, drones capable of slipping into apartment windows, and supersonic missiles fired from stealth fighter jets - have been honed by years of conflict in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. Asked why the mission of targeting Iran's leaders was assigned to Israel, a senior Israeli security official cited its experience and expertise, saying: "There was a need to target them. And we could do it."