IRAN’S President was reportedly injured during an Israeli blitz during the 12-day war last month – before being bundled out of an emergency hatch.
Masoud Pezeshkian was wounded in the leg and forced to flee during a high-profile emergency meeting of the Supreme National Security Council, Tehran said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was injured during an Israeli blitz last month[/caption]
The attack on June 16 targeted the entry points of a secret underground facility in the Iranian capital with six missiles.
The devastating attack left the building without power, blocked all its access points and cut off its ventilation system.
But all the top officials there, including Pezeshkian, managed to escape death during the blitz which came on the fourth day of the conflict.
The claims come after the Iranian President accused Israel of trying to assassinate him during the tense conflict last month.
The 12-day war kicked off with Operation Rising Lion, which saw Israel attempting to derail Iran’s nuclear programme by striking Tehran’s enrichment facilities.
During Tel Aviv’s attack on the high-profile meeting, other top officials alongside Pezeshkian included Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the parliamentary speaker, and Mohseni Ejei, a judiciary chief.
Tehran also claimed the strike had similarities to the one that eliminated long-term Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
The Iranian President told Tucker Carlson last week that he had personally been the target of an Israeli attack.
When asked if he had been the subject of an assassination attempt, he said: “They did try, yes. They acted accordingly, but they failed.
“I was in a meeting. We were discussing the ways to move forward, but thanks to the intelligence by the spies that they had, they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting.”
But Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz denied the allegations – saying that “regime change” had not been a part of the plan during the blistering conflict last month.
Iranian state media reported the the attack occurred “before noon on Monday, June 16, while a meeting of the Supreme National Security Council was being held”.
The meeting included the “heads of the three branches of government and other senior officials”.
State media added that the meeting was held “in the lower floors of a building in western Tehran”.
“The attackers targeted the building’s entrances and exits by firing six bombs or missiles to block escape routes and cut off air flow,” the report detailed.
Investigations are now ongoing in Iran in order to find out how such a precise attack was possible.
Internal probes will hope to get to the bottom of how Israel came to know the president’s exact movements and the location of the top-secret Supreme National Security Council meeting.
Tehran has arrested more than 700 people in the wake of the war on charges of collaborating with Israel.
It has also attempted to push through a new emergency spy law – which will introduce more severe punishments including the death penalty.
The Supreme National Security Council is seen as Tehran’s number two decision-maker, just behind Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Ayatollah went into deep hiding during the teetering conflict while Israel carried out its advanced air and ground attacks.
The 12-day war began on June 13 when Israel launched Operation Rising Lion – a sophisticated bombing campaign which targeted Iran’s military nuclear sites.
The Israelis also orchestrated Operation Red Wedding – which saw 30 top Iranian military chiefs killed in a near-simultaneous blitz as Tel Aviv sought to root out the country’s military strength entirely.
Iran retaliated by launching daily salvos of ballistic missiles across Israel, but failed to hit any strategic targets.
Iran also launched salvos of missiles back at Israel, pictured[/caption]
Rocket trails above Netanya, Israel amid a barrage of Iranian missiles on June 21[/caption]
Less than a fortnight later, Trump joined the Israeli bombing campaign against Iran with Operation Midnight Hammer.
The US military’s flagship B-2 Spirit stealth bombers dropped more than a dozen 30,000lb GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs.
The bunker-buster bombs were used to hit Iran’s Fordow Nuclear Enrichment Plant.
Iran, which vowed to hit US military bases across the Middle East, sought its revenge by launching missiles at Al-Udeid Air Base – America’s biggest military station in the region.
But Tehran seemingly cooked up a fake attack after passing warnings to its Qatari allies, which allowed all US service personnel and aircraft to be moved out of harm’s way.
Trump dubbed the expected response “weak” before announcing that a ceasefire deal had been reached between the Israelis and Iranians.
Inside Iran’s brutal crackdown on its own people
by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)
TYRANNICAL leaders in Iran have demanded citizens act as undercover informants to turn in anyone who dares oppose the regime, insiders say.
Panicked mullahs have also ordered “telecom cages” be installed around prisons as the regime wages war against its own people.
Political prisoners – largely banished to death row on trumped-up charges – have been subject to extreme torture and a disturbing rate of executions in the face of growing tensions in the Middle East.
Insiders say their treatment is being weaponised to deter opposition.
The fight against repression has loomed large for decades in the rogue state – but the so-called 12-day war last month has made the barbaric Ayatollah more fearful than ever of being toppled.
With Ali Khamenei’s grip weakened by the unprecedented Israeli and US blitz, the incapacitated supreme leader has discharged fresh hell on his own people in a corrupt bid to stifle uprising.
Sources inside Iran told The Sun how a direct alert has been issued to the public, urging them to report any activity linked to resistance groups of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
Regime loyalists have been implored to act as informants – compiling detailed reports with photos, times, locations, licence plates and facial features of suspected individuals.
