President Donald Trump made the decision to launch a decapitation strike against Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the night of Feb. 27, after U.S. intelligence officials informed him they had located the Iranian leader, as "Hvylya" reports, citing a detailed account published by TIME.
Trump had just arrived at Mar-a-Lago when the intelligence came in. As guests partied on one side of his oceanfront mansion, Trump huddled with top military and intelligence brass on the other. The strike was not supposed to happen that night. "We went way early," Trump told TIME. "We were going to do it in another week."
In the early hours of Saturday morning - the start of the workweek in Tehran - Operation Epic Fury began. American long-range missiles and drones moved in concert with Israeli jets, striking hundreds of Iranian military installations: missile batteries, naval vessels, air-defense systems, and command centers. It was one of the region's most expansive air operations in decades.
The bombardment killed Khamenei, who had presided over Iran's repressive regime for 36 years. A cluster of senior officials seen as potential successors were also killed. "I've killed all their leaders," Trump said. "That room is gone." The attacks also inflicted significant damage to civilian areas - in the far south of Iran, more than 150 people were killed when a barrage hit a girls' school.
Months had passed since Trump began preparing for the possibility of war with Iran. He had instructed military officials to draw up operational plans for a joint strike coordinated closely with Israel. The latest round of negotiations in Geneva had done little to reassure him. Trump grew suspicious that Tehran was preparing an attack on American and Israeli targets. Iranian negotiators proposed to meet again in a week with U.S. envoys. "When I heard that," Trump said, "I said, you know, they're going to hit first."
Iran retaliated with missile and drone bombardments against U.S. bases and allied territory. One Iranian drone killed six American service members at a U.S. command center in Kuwait.
Also read: Israel Struck a Secret Gathering in Iran: The Target Was the Group Choosing Khamenei's Successor