Operation Rising Lion Reshapes Power Dynamics in a Volatile Region

What distinguishes this operation from past Israeli campaigns is not just the breadth of targets ranging from the Natanz enrichment facility to missile sites and senior Iranian officials, but the technology behind the strikes.

- MAJ GEN JAGATBIR SINGH (RETD)

INTRODUCTION In the early hours of Friday the 13th, Israel began a series of air and precision strikes on Iranian military and nuclear targets, culminating in the killing of top army generals and nuclear scientists. The attacks, dubbed Operation Rising Lion, had been widely suggested as threats but few expected them to take place as Iranian nuclear talks with the United States were underway with the next round of talks scheduled for 15 June in Oman.

Israel launched Operation Rising Lion preemptively to "roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival". Some 200 Israeli Air Force jets struck dozens of nuclear and military command targets deep inside Iran. Apparently, Israeli intelligence had concluded that Tehran was about to cross the threshold towards weaponisation. Israeli sources said the Revolutionary Guard had capabilities to assemble 15 nuclear bombs.

Targets included nuclear enrichment facilities, ballistic missile production sites, and the homes and offices of senior Iranian military and political leaders. Major General Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Major General Mohammad Bagheri the Chief of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces, were killed in the strikes.

Among the scientists reported killed were Dr Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, former head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran and a leading nuclear physicist, and Dr Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a prominent academic and advocate of Iran's advanced scientific and AI capabilities.

Iran of course retaliated on 14 June with ballistic missile strikes on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.