Inside 'Operation Narnia,' the daring attack Israel feared it couldn't pull off

Pilots trained for years and intelligence forces built up networks for the multipart offensive in Iran, which included a gambit called 'Red Wedding'

- Dov Lieber

At midnight on June 13, Israel's generals gathered in a bunker beneath Israeli air force headquarters and watched as jets descended on Tehran in an operation they called "Red Wedding."

Hours later and 1,000 miles away, Iran's top military commanders were dead—a mass killing much like the famous wedding scene from the show "Game of Thrones."

The combination of intelligence information and military precision that enabled the attack surprised people around the world. But it wasn't the only improbable success at the outset of Israel's 12-day campaign.

Another key part of the initial attack—considered so fantastical by even its planners that it was called "Operation Narnia," after the fictional C.S. Lewis series—successfully killed nine top Iranian nuclear scientists almost simultaneously at their homes in Tehran.

Pulling off the attacks required elaborate ruses to ensure surprise. At the last moment, they nearly fell apart.

The operations have helped cement Israel as the dominant military power in the region, setting the stage for what Israelis hope will be a dramatic realignment of countries away from Iranian influence and toward friendlier relations with Israel. Top Israeli and U.S. officials say they expect Israel to sign new peace accords following the battle.

Questions remain over whether Israel, which was later aided by a massive bombing strike on Iran's nuclear sites by the U.S., has really achieved its war aims. There are conflicting reports about the damage done to the nuclear sites, and the jury is out on whether Israel and the U.S. can prevent Iran from rebuilding what has been destroyed.