Israel’s military announced Friday that approximately 50 fighter jets dropped more than 100 munitions on a secret underground bunker beneath Tehran’s leadership compound, completely destroying the facility that Iranian regime officials had continued using as a wartime command center even after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening strike of the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign.
The Israel Defense Forces said the underground complex stretched beneath several city blocks in the heart of Tehran, containing multiple entry points and meeting rooms used by the regime’s senior leadership. Intelligence officers from Unit 8200, Israel’s premier signals intelligence arm, and Unit 9900, which specializes in geospatial targeting, spent years mapping the facility before Israeli pilots struck it in a single coordinated wave.
“Senior regime officials continued using the bunker because they thought it was protected and impenetrable,” IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said. “They were wrong.”
The IDF said Khamenei was killed at the compound in the first moments of the operation before he could reach the bunker. Despite his death, senior Iranian figures pressed on inside the facility, apparently believing its fortified walls would shield them. Israeli intelligence tracked their movements and directed Friday’s strike accordingly.
The assault marked one of the most significant blows against Tehran’s command structure since the campaign began. The IDF said Iranian forces fired roughly 90 ballistic missiles toward Israel on the first day of the conflict, followed by around 60 the next day. Daily launches have since fallen to approximately 20 missiles, typically in smaller salvos.
U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper confirmed Thursday that Iran’s missile launches have dropped by roughly 90 percent compared to the opening day.
Israeli and American officials say the pace of the campaign has exceeded expectations. A senior Israeli official told the Times of Israel that the joint operation is “proceeding much better than expected,” adding that “nobody could have expected such smooth execution.”
Since operations began, Israeli aircraft have flown approximately 2,500 sorties across 150 waves of strikes and dropped more than 6,500 bombs across Iranian territory. The IDF estimates that more than 300 Iranian ballistic missile launchers have been destroyed, leaving the regime with roughly 100 to 200 still operational.
On Friday alone, Israeli forces targeted more than 400 Iranian military sites in western Iran, including ballistic missile launchers and drone warehouses.
Israel also struck a separate target in Tehran on Friday: Seyyed Ali Asghar Hijazi, a senior official inside the supreme leader’s office who had been seen as a potential candidate to succeed Khamenei. Officials said results from that strike are still being assessed.
The bunker strike follows a series of precision attacks on Iran’s political succession apparatus. Earlier this week, Israeli warplanes destroyed the building in Qom where Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerical body that selects the supreme leader, had been meeting.
Originally reported by Breitbart News.
