 "Israeli military robot")
Israel is believed to have conducted multiple assassinations, drone strikes and intelligence operations on Iranian soil, a fact that was brought up again this week when an Israeli official had to clarify that Israel was not involved in the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash.
Iran's armed forces chief of staff has ordered an investigation into the cause of the helicopter crash.
Chants of 'Death to Israel' could be heard as crowds of Iranians thronged the streets of Tehran on Wednesday for Raisi and his entourage's funeral procession, once again highlighting the years-long shadow war between Iran and Israel, which went hot in April when the exchange of hostilities between the two marked their first direct military confrontation.
While Israel views Iran as its greatest threat because of Tehran's nuclear programme and support for armed groups targeting Israel, Iran views itself as the chief backer of Palestinian resistance to Israel.
Speculation in the immediate aftermath of President Raisi's death prompted an Israeli official to tell Reuters that Israel did not have a hand in his death. However, Israel's Mossad spy agency has conducted multiple assassinations and intelligence operations within Iran in the past. And the details of some of these operations read like a thriller spy novel.
Israel's AI-powered machine gun robot
In November 2020, Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who Western and Israeli intelligence believed was the father of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons programme, was killed in a roadside attack outside Tehran.
Blaming Israel and an exiled opposition group, Iran described Fakhrizadeh's killing as a new type of "complex operation". Speaking to Iranian state TV, Rear-Admiral Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, had said that the "operation was very complex, using electronic equipment and no one was present at the scene."
Fakhrizadeh was killed using a robotically operated machine gun, which had been mounted on a truck parked on the roadside, while driving his car. The actual human sniper, who was controlling the machine gun, reportedly conducted the operation from an undisclosed location over 1,500 kilometres away.
The operation also saw the first reported use of artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct an assassination on foreign soil.
Israel began by attaching a machine gun to an advanced robotic apparatus, which was equipped with AI and operated via satellite. Transporting this robotic assassin to the location of the operation was also a challenge in itself given that it weighed about a tonne. So, its components were broken down and smuggled into Iran piece by piece. Then, they were reassembled, with the robot being fitted in the bed of a pickup truck model that is common in Iran. These details were revealed by a New York Times (NYT) report based on information from Israeli intelligence sources.
According to the NYT report, the Israeli command room had a full picture of the situation on the ground thanks to the truck being fitted with cameras pointing in multiple directions. The truck was also rigged with explosives so that it could be destroyed after the operation. Finally, the AI that the robot was equipped with was programmed to compensate for delay, the truck's shake and the speed of Fakhrizadeh's car.
When the motorcade, including Fakhrizadeh's car, came into the robot's sights, the Israeli operators were able to positively identify the nuclear scientist using facial recognition software.
The machine gun opened fire, killing Fakhrizadeh. According to the NYT report, the entire operation was over in less than a minute and a total of fifteen bullets were fired.
Iranian investigators reportedly noted the accuracy of the operation, given that not one of the bullets hit Fakhrizadeh's wife, who was seated inches away from him.
However, there was one glitch in the operation, when the truck carrying the robot exploded, most of the specialised equipment was damaged but still intact. The Israesli's had intended for the explosion to rip the robot to shreds.
Multiple assassinations
Apart from Fakhrizadeh, Israel is also believed to have assassinated at least
four other Iranian scientists and officials. However, these attacks appear to have been executed the old-fashioned way, using remote-controlled bombs or human shooters on the ground.
In January 2010, Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, a physics professor at Tehran University, was killed using a remote-controlled bomb planted in his motorcycle. Tehran described Ali-Mohammadi as a nuclear scientist, with Iranian state media claiming that Israel and the United States (US) had killed him.
In November 2010, Majid Shahriari, a professor at Shahid Beheshti University's nuclear engineering faculty in Tehran, was killed when his car exploded while he was on his way to work. Once again, the US and Israel were blamed for the attack.
In January 2012, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, described by Iran as a nuclear scientist working at its primary uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, was killed in Tehran using a bomb placed on his car. This time too, Iran blamed Israel and the US for the attack.
In May 2022, Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, an officer in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was shot and killed outside of his home in Tehran. Subsequently, a member of Iran's Supreme National Security Council had alleged that Khodaei's assassination was "definitely the work of Israel".
Cyberattacks and drone strikes
Israel is also believed to have been involved in at least eight major instances of cyberattack on Iran, with the most famous one being the 2010 attack involving the Stuxnet virus, which was first found in computers at an Iranian nuclear plant. According to an estimate by the Institute for Science and International Security, the virus attack resulted in the destruction of at least 1,000 out of the 9,000 centrifuges present at the Natanz enrichment facility. Iran blamed Israel and the US for the attack.
Israel has also reportedly used suicide drones to strike military facilities in Iran, including the Parchin military complex located near Tehran and another facility in Isfahan.
Physical operations
While the technology-driven, remote operations are impressive, some of Israel's most daring strikes within Iran have involved boots on the ground.
In January 2018, Mossad agents reportedly raided a secure facility in Tehran and stole classified nuclear information. In April that year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel had found 100,000 "secret files" proving that Iran had lied about never having a nuclear weapons programme.
In June 2023, Mossad announced that it had carried out a special operation in Iranian territory, during which it had captured an Iranian operative sent to lead a planned terror attack in Cyprus against Israeli targets.
The Mossad even published a video of its agents interrogating the operative, who confessed to the plot. According to the spy agency, the operative had been given weapons for the attack by senior IRGC officials.
