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In a dramatic escalation of military operations, Israel’s military announced on Friday that around 50 fighter jets launched an assault, deploying over 100 munitions to obliterate a covert underground bunker in Tehran. This facility, once associated with the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was described by Israeli forces as a crucial wartime command center still in use by high-ranking officials of the Iranian regime. The strike signifies a deepening collaboration between the United States and Israel against the Islamic Republic.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that the Israeli Air Force executed this substantial airstrike early on Friday, targeting the “leadership compound” nestled in the heart of Tehran. This expansive complex, comprising government and security edifices, has long functioned as the operational hub for Iran’s political and military command.
The IDF revealed that the bunker extended beneath several city blocks, equipped with multiple access points and meeting rooms, facilitating gatherings of the regime’s senior officials. “The underground bunker, constructed beneath the compound, was a secure emergency asset for managing the war by the leader,” stated the IDF, emphasizing that Khamenei was neutralized in the campaign’s initial strike before he could access the facility.
Despite the leader’s death, Israeli authorities noted that the compound continued to serve senior Iranian officials, who mistakenly believed the reinforced structure offered protection. “Senior regime officials continued using the bunker because they thought it was protected and impenetrable — they were wrong,” explained IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, highlighting the strike’s strategic impact.
Even after his death, Israeli officials said the compound continued to be used by senior Iranian figures who believed the fortified structure remained protected.
“Senior regime officials continued using the bunker because they thought it was protected and impenetrable — they were wrong,” IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said.
The operation was enabled by years of intelligence work carried out by Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, including elite Unit 8200 — Israel’s premier signals intelligence arm, often compared to the NSA — and Unit 9900, which specializes in visual, satellite, and geospatial intelligence used to map and analyze strategic targets.
That intelligence allowed Israeli pilots to strike the complex with precision, dropping roughly 100 bombs in a single wave of attacks that the military said completely destroyed the subterranean facility.
The strike marked the latest blow against Tehran’s command infrastructure during the ongoing campaign, which has targeted the regime’s leadership complex repeatedly over the past week.
In the opening strike of the war, Israeli forces killed Khamenei himself at the compound before he could relocate to the bunker, decapitating the Islamic Republic’s leadership in the first moments of the operation.
Subsequent strikes in the area killed additional senior Iranian officials and targeted key regime institutions, including the headquarters of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and other buildings used by the regime’s senior decision-making bodies.
Israeli forces also carried out a separate strike on Friday in Tehran targeting Seyyed Ali Asghar Hijazi, a powerful figure inside the supreme leader’s office widely viewed as one of the most influential officials in Iran’s leadership structure.
Hijazi has long served as a key intermediary between the supreme leader and Iran’s security institutions, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and has been mentioned in recent reports as a possible candidate to succeed Khamenei.
Israeli officials said the results of that strike are still being assessed.
The latest attacks come as Israeli and American officials say the broader military campaign is significantly degrading Iran’s military capabilities.
According to the IDF, Israeli forces struck more than 400 Iranian military targets in western Iran on Friday, including ballistic missile launchers and drone warehouses.
The military estimates that it has destroyed more than 300 Iranian ballistic missile launchers, leaving the regime with roughly 100 to 200 still operational.
Since the start of the war, Israeli fighter jets have conducted approximately 2,500 sorties across 150 waves of strikes, dropping more than 6,500 bombs across Iran.
Israeli officials say the sustained bombardment has dramatically reduced Tehran’s ability to launch retaliatory attacks.
Iran fired roughly 90 ballistic missiles toward Israel on the first day of the conflict, followed by about 60 the next day, but launches have since fallen to around 20 missiles per day, typically fired in smaller salvos.
U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper said Thursday that Iran’s missile attacks have dropped by roughly 90 percent compared to the first day of the war.
A senior Israeli official told the Times of Israel that the joint U.S.–Israeli campaign is “proceeding much better than expected.”
“Nobody could have expected such smooth execution,” the official said, adding that the scale and coordination of the strikes have produced results far sooner than anticipated.
The bunker strike follows earlier Israeli attacks targeting the regime’s political leadership and succession mechanisms.
Earlier this week, Israeli warplanes flattened the building in the holy city of Qom housing Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for selecting the Islamic Republic’s next supreme leader.
The Assembly must appoint a new leader “within the shortest possible time” under Iran’s constitution following the death of the incumbent.
With Tehran’s leadership compound repeatedly struck and the clerical body tasked with selecting the regime’s next supreme leader targeted in Qom, the campaign has now hit both the operational command center of the Islamic Republic and the constitutional mechanism designed to preserve its continuity.
As the war entered its seventh day on Friday, the White House said the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign is already moving toward its central objectives, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stating the administration expects the operation’s achievable goals to be reached within “four to six weeks.”
Leavitt added that U.S. officials are already examining potential leadership figures for Iran should the current regime collapse, underscoring that Washington is preparing for the country’s political future even as American and Israeli forces continue dismantling the regime’s military capabilities.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump reiterated Friday that there will be “no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” declaring that once Tehran no longer poses a threat to the United States, the country could move toward selecting what he called a “great and acceptable” new leadership.
