The stunning operation to eliminate Iran’s top military commanders early Friday morning was code-named “Red Wedding” after the infamous scene in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series and “Game of Thrones” TV show, due to the almost fantastical way it was carried out, according to a Hebrew media report Wednesday.
Spoiler alert: The famously shocking scene is set at a political wedding reception during which the entire family of the groom is betrayed and massacred by the family of the bride and its allies.
At the end of October, at the height of the fighting against Hezbollah, the IDF began planning for the operation in Iran.
The military said the planning stage was based on “deep knowledge” developed by the Military Intelligence Directorate in recent years, as well as on the current operational capabilities of the Israeli Air Force.
The “infrastructure” for the operation was developed over the years through covert IDF operations and the addition of new Israeli Air Force “kinetic capabilities.”
At the end of November, during the ground offensive in Lebanon, the Intelligence Directorate and IAF held a joint conference during which they outlined Iran’s “centers of gravity” for the operation: Iranian firepower, air superiority, the nuclear program, force buildup, the Iranian economy, governance, and the military industry.
Warning: Graphic violence and spoilers
The conclusion after that joint conference was that establishing air superiority was the key.
A joint Intelligence Directorate and IAF team spent months mapping out Iran’s air defense systems, which required cross-referencing thousands of intelligence sources, alongside generating new ones.
By March, the issue was cracked, and intelligence teams began working on creating a target bank based on the identified centers of gravity.
In addition, a special team was formed in the Operations Division, the Intelligence Directorate’s Research Division, and the 8200 signals intelligence unit, tasked with simultaneously eliminating the military leadership of the Iranian regime.
According to the Walla news site, the officers who developed the plans were inspired by the fictional “Game of Thrones” massacre, which, in a matter of minutes, brutally took out almost an entire family.
The real-life “Red Wedding” saw more than 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft participate in the opening strikes, with fighter jets dropping over 330 munitions on some 100 targets, according to the IDF. Meanwhile, Mossad agents had set up a drone base on Iranian soil near Tehran. The drones were activated overnight, striking surface-to-surface missile launchers aimed at Israel.
The chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami; the chief of Iran’s military, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri; and the head of the Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters — also known as the emergency command — Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid were all killed in the strikes on Iran early Friday.
The operation significantly hampered Iran’s ability to respond as the IAF quickly asserted air superiority over western Iran and Tehran.
Israel says its sweeping assault is necessary to prevent its longtime adversary from building atomic weapons and massing tens of thousands of ballistic missiles. At the beginning of the campaign on Friday, it said the situation had become an immediate existential threat to the Jewish state.
Iran, which regularly calls for Israel’s destruction, insists that its nuclear program is peaceful; however, it has been enriching uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, has obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and has greatly expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.
So far, 24 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in Israel in Iran’s ballistic missile attacks, launched in response to the surprise campaign against the Islamic Republic.
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 224 people, according to Iranian officials.