'Unprecedented operation': How Israel targeted nuclear scientists in Iran

In a joint investigation with PBS Frontline, the Washington Post has shed light on the inner workings of "Operation Narnia," a covert campaign led by Israel against Iranian scientists ahead of the June war with Tehran.

The investigation into this operation, described as "unprecedented in history," was published Wednesday by the American daily and is based on a series of interviews with current and former officials from Israel, Iran, Arab nations and the United States.

On the eve of June 12, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declared that Tehran was in violation of its nuclear nonproliferation obligations.

The next day, at 3:21 a.m. local time, Israel launched a series of massive airstrikes against Iran, targeting, among other things, its nuclear facilities.

"Operation Narnia was underway," explained the Washington Post. These strikes resulted, on that day and in the days that followed, in the deaths of "11 senior Iranian nuclear scientists," according to the newspaper.

Iran quickly retaliated with missile and drone attacks on Israeli territory. The hostilities, which played out against the backdrop of the Gaza war, lasted 12 days before a cease-fire took effect on June 24.

The United States participated in the war alongside Israel, carrying out massive bombings of targets in Iran.

While Israel had previously assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists, it had always done so clandestinely until now, the Washington Post points out.

Eliminating the 'brains' behind Iran's nuclear program

For "Operation Narnia," described as "unprecedented in history" by an Israeli security official, Israeli intelligence compiled a list of the 100 most prominent Iranian nuclear scientists, which was pared down to about a dozen names, the newspaper explains.

"They built a dossier for each individual — their work, movements, residences — based on decades of espionage," the report said.

Rather than limiting their targets to infrastructure, Israel prioritized eliminating the "brains" of Iran's nuclear program, referring to a generation of engineers and physicists believed by Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies to play a key role in the potential development of a nuclear weapon.

"Preparations for the war were nearly complete. A horde of Israeli-backed agents were on the ground in Iran, equipped with new sophisticated weapons," wrote the Washington Post.

The Mossad had mobilized more than 100 Iranian agents, "trained in Israel and elsewhere," and supplied some with "three-component special weapons" for precision strikes against military targets, an Israeli security official told the newspaper.

Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, an Iranian explosives expert sanctioned by Washington for his nuclear work, was killed in his sixth-floor apartment in Tehran. Two hours later, Freydoun Abbassi, another nuclear scientist also under U.S. sanctions, was killed by a strike in the Iranian capital.

The 17-year-old son of an Iranian scientist killed

Another Iranian scientist, Mohammad Reza Sedighi Saber, was not at home in Tehran when an Israeli strike hit his residence.

His 17-year-old son was killed in the attack. But on June 24, the last day of the Israeli offensive, Saber, who had come to join his family for a ceremony honoring his son, was himself killed in a new strike. Fifteen other relatives lost their lives in this attack.

The Washington Post and investigative site Bellingcat were able to independently confirm that the campaign resulted in 71 civilian deaths during five strikes targeting scientists. In one such strike on a residential complex in Tehran, a two-month-old infant was killed, as well as nine other civilians.

The operation was part of Israel's offensive against Iran, dubbed "The Lion Rises," which reportedly destroyed more than half of Iran's ballistic missile launchers and neutralized most of the country's air defenses. The strikes during the war also allegedly "decapitated the leadership of Iran's army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps," according to the media outlet.

Despite Israeli officials' statements about seeking to limit civilian casualties, the human consequences of the offensive were severe. The Washington Post notes that according to the Iranian government, 1,062 people were killed in Israeli strikes, including 276 civilians. In Israel, 31 civilians lost their lives as a result of Iranian strikes on civilian infrastructure, according to the head of Israel's Home Front Command.

To read the full Washington Post investigation, click here