Mar 08, 2026
3 min read
In 2002, Israeli intelligence managed to infiltrate the supreme leader's inner circle in an operation orchestrated by Ariel Sharon that ended in "epic rage." Haman Special Forces takes its name from the Persian officer Xerxes I who conspired to exterminate the Jewish people in the 5th century BC. More information: Prayer app to recruit dissidents and hack traffic cameras: Israel's cyber attack on the Iranian regime
Target, Assassinate Khamenei: Mossad's 'Aman' Unit's Secret Plan to Track Ayatollah for 24 Years to Kill Him
In 2002, Israeli intelligence managed to infiltrate the supreme leader's inner circle in an operation designed by Ariel Sharon that culminated in "Epic Rage".
The special unit "Haman" is named after the Persian officer Xerxes I, who plotted to exterminate the Jews in the 5th century BC.
Additional information:A prayer app to recruit dissenters and hacked traffic cameras.Israel's cyberattack against the Iranian regime
'Aman' is the name of the secret Israeli intelligence unit founded by Ariel Sharon.Its name comes from the main villain of the Book of Esther, included in the Old Testament: a high-ranking Persian official who plans to exterminate the Jews during the reign of Xerxes I.
Haman exposed the arrogance and abuse of power in the Persian court, and his anger flared when the Jewish Mordecai refused to bow to him, leading Haman to convince the king to sign an order for the extermination of the Jews.
Without a doubt, this figure can be represented today by the late Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the former Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
What role did the Mossad play in the February 28 liquidation of the Iranian leader?What role did Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who died in 2014, play in Khamenei's death?And the four Mossad directors toppling political, religious and military hierarchies across Iran on the first day of Operation Epic Fury?
This secret story begins 24 years ago, in August 2002 to be exact, when Ariel Sharon had been Prime Minister for only a year.
One afternoon that summer, Sharon summoned his newly appointed Mossad memune, Meir Dagan, to his residence in Jerusalem;Major General Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, Chief of Military Intelligence;General Giora Eiland, head of Varash, the intelligence committee;Uzi Dayan, Chairman of the National Security Council, and Danny Arditi, Deputy for Operations of the National Security Council.
Sharon then Dagan came anew to create a special unit in the Mossad that depends only on memueh himself, controlled by the great guidance of the supreme leader Khamenei.The new secret unit is called 'Haman', in memory of the historical Persian enemy who tried to destroy the Jews.
From that moment on, Mossad's Aman Division would conduct covert operations to monitor Supreme Leader Khamenei, as well as his family members, his closest associates, and the closest members of his security.
All the circles around Khamenei will be under the strict control of the "Aman" unit, and its only goal will be to eliminate the supreme leader of Iran.
In the years that followed, it was clear to the Prime Ministers of Israel and the three subsequent directors of the Mossad, Tamir Pardo, Yossi Cohen and David Barnea, that the killing of Ali Husseini Khamenei was the ultimate goal to be defeated.
For all of Israel's wise leaders, being able to remove their best Iranian leader is like managing to kill Asmodeus, who in Talmudic and mystical texts appears to be a powerful king of demons that is difficult to subdue.For Netanyahu, Khamenei is his own 'Asmodeus'.
Netanyahu's return
On December 29, 2022, with the return of Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister of Israel, the "Aman" unit will be reinforced with new soldiers.
The Prime Minister told his Mossad chief, David Barnia;the head of military intelligence in Amman, Major General Ahron Havilah;and his national security adviser, Eyal Hulata, that his government's top security and intelligence priority was to remove Iran's top leader.
Netanyahu asked Barnia for a deadline for a final blow and gave him the status of 'Ein Efes' who does not accept defeat.
Since then, operatives have been beefed up in Iran, as well as the 8,200 unit of the Israel Defense Forces' intelligence corps, whose mission is to intercept intelligence signals and decipher the codes.
Israeli agents in Tehran began closely monitoring the leaders of Hefazat Ansar, or Ansar al-Mahdi Protection Corps, a special unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) charged with protecting the country's top leaders.
In December 2024, Ali Younisi, the former Minister of Information of Iran, emphasized the deep influence of the Mossad in Iran and urged all Iranian officials to be vigilant about its security.
Four years ago, in June 2017, it was reported that one of Ali Khamenei's closest bodyguards, Lt. Col. Hassan Akbari, had died.
VAJA, Iran's intelligence agency, claimed that Akbar was killed using a powerful poison by Israeli agents after attending a dinner with other Iranian intelligence agents.However, the IRGC claimed that Akbari died "due to a technical defect in his service weapon".
Whether true one way or another, Akbari's death put Iranian security on alert about how close the Mossad was to the supreme leader.
In announcing his death, the Tehran government described Akbari as “one of the closest bodyguards of the leader of the revolution”.
Other Katsas managed by Israel are Brigadier General Fathollah Jamiri (who heads the security department since April 2020) and Hassan Mashrou'i-Far (known as "Emami"), the leader of Ansar al-Mahdi, who is responsible for the security of the Supreme Leader.
In addition, Mashroui Far was in charge of security at the Mutahari Complex in Tehran, a highly secure strategic location that houses key offices of the Iranian regime, including Khamenei's headquarters, the Guardian Council and the Assembly of Experts, and was blown up at the start of Operation Epic Storm.
siege of Tehran
The seeds of this surveillance of the Israelis on the ground and the runners Unit 8200 bore fruit in May 2025, when David Barnea, head of the Mossad, told the American John Ratcliffe, of the CIA, and the national security adviser, Marco Rubio, that they had Ayatollah Khamenei in the center and that the White House would attack him.
The most interesting thing is that Donald Trump himself explained to Netanyahu that, while the Iranians have not killed any American citizen or attacked American strategic military interests in the region, he has "vetoed for now" the possibility of killing Ayatollah Khamenei.
In an interview with the Israeli leader on Fox News, he said: "There are a lot of false reports about negotiations that never happened, and I'm not going to get into that. [...] But I can tell you that I believe we will do whatever it takes. I believe that the United States knows what is good for it."
It seems that at that time Trump was still hoping to push Tehran to the negotiating table without using force.But without a doubt he was wrong.
From that moment on, the activities of the military hackers of Unit 8200 intensified their surveillance of Tehran's traffic cameras, which surrounded the Motahari complex and monitored Khamenei's closest bodyguards.
The monitoring focused on the traffic lights located at the intersection of Koshzaban and Azerbaijan roads and Pasteur and Khoshzaban roads.These three roads surrounded the area in which stood the center of power of the Islamic Republic.
From 'Roaring Lion' to 'Epic Fury'
On Thursday, February 26, 2026, the head of the 'Aman' unit in Tehran alerted Israeli intelligence headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Mossad learned two days later that Ayatollah Khamenei and most political and military leaders, including the Revolutionary Guards, would hold a meeting in the capital's Mutahiri compound.It's now or ever.
Barnea requested an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, which was attended by Gil Reich, the national security adviser;Major General Shlomi Binder, Director of Military Intelligence;Brigadier General Amir Gat, head of the Air Force Intelligence Group;and Brigadier General Yossi Sariel, head of Unit 8200.
The head of the Mossad told those present that Tehran's katsas had discovered that, within 48 hours, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, along with many national and military leaders, would all gather in a house in Tehran.
Netanyahu ordered Barney to brief his CIA colleague John Ratcliffe, and he himself would brief President Trump.The Israeli leader knew that this opportunity would not be repeated.
It appears that the White House did not make the decision to give the green light to attack Israel until the early hours of Friday morning the 27th.
Operations 'Roaring Lion' (of Israel) and 'Epic Rage' (of America) were launched.Several squadrons of F-35, F-15 and F-16 fighter bombers were activated for this purpose.
They were all armed with GPS or laser-guided bombs, known as precision munitions, and were munitions that penetrated the bunker.
This attack began on February 28.in the morning, around 09:45Tehran time.An hour before, a convoy of official cars entered the government complex on Pastor street.Burglars in the 8200 block had already seen a long line of vehicles on traffic cameras.
In an actual operation, taking into account possible route deviations, tactical coordination and refueling during the flight, the total time for the Israeli fighters to reach the target could be closer to two to three hours from takeoff to the target area, so the takeoff is likely to happen around 05:15 Jerusalem time.
Just three hours later, the first warplanes began dropping their first bombs on the building known as the Leader's House, the residence of Supreme Leader Ali Husseini Khamenei.
Minutes later, the building was a mass of rubble and twisted steel beams.
Under tons of rubble lies the body of Ayatollah Khamenei and 40 other leaders of the Iranian government.
These include Saleh Asadi, chief of intelligence at Khatam-al-Anbiya headquarters; Brigadier General Hussein Jabbar Amilian of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); Brigadier General Bahram Husseini Motera, also a senior IRGC commander; Mohammed Shiraz, director of the Supreme Leader’s Military Office; GholamrezaRezaian, head of intelligence for the Iranian Police (SAFA); Lt. Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh, defense minister; Lt. Gen. Mohammad Parkpur, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' ground forces; Lt. Gen. Abdulrahim Mousavi, chief of general staff; or Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.Israel's blow was fatal.
The bet is abandoned
The next decisive blow by the Israeli Air Force against Iran will be delivered on March 3 when several of its units decided to attack the complex of the Assembly of Experts, which was to elect the successor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Mossad posted a message in Persian on the social network
Israel then attacked the Senate building in Rasalat Square in the holy city of Qom, in central western Iran, the body responsible for electing the next leader of the Islamic Republic.
Sources from Amman's military intelligence said Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked the building during a vote to appoint a successor, noting that all 88 members of the committee were present at the time of the attack.
On the contrary, another report, this time from Iran, said that the building was empty and unoccupied at the time of the attack.
Despite the images of missiles flying over the skies of the Middle East. These two letters prove once again that intelligence has become a secondary force in the ongoing dark battle for control of Iran. Alea jacta est (eternal outpouring).
