Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several senior figures from the country’s military and political leadership were killed in a military operation launched by the United States and Israel. Retired colonel and military commentator Mikhail Khodarenok offered his assessment of the developments.

Khodarenok noted that precision strikes targeting an adversary’s top command are a hallmark tactic of the U. S. Armed Forces and the Israel Defense Forces. Given that pattern, he argued, Iranian authorities should have taken maximum precautions to shield their senior leadership.

Instead, at the very outset of the campaign — in the early hours of February 28 — the head of the Islamic Republic was killed. Several of his relatives also died. Among those reported killed in the airstrikes were Iran’s Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, Chief of the General Staff Abdulrahim Mousavi, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Mohammad Pakpour, and Secretary of the Supreme National Defense Council Ali Shamkhani.

In Khodarenok’s view, members of Iran’s top leadership were likely sheltering in fortified underground facilities and severely restricting communications to avoid detection. Nevertheless, U.S. and Israeli intelligence services managed to determine their location. He suggested that, given the protected nature of the sites, the strikes were probably carried out using high-precision bunker-busting munitions capable of penetrating dozens of meters of earth and several meters of reinforced concrete.

The strikes, he added, affected not only senior officials but also their immediate entourage — advisers, staff members, and military specialists. This, in his assessment, caused serious disruptions in Iran’s system of state and military command. Newly appointed officials will need time to restore effective control, while the threat of further targeted attacks remains.

Khodarenok argued that Iran’s governance and armed forces have, without exaggeration, been temporarily paralyzed. Deputies replacing the killed political and military leaders are only beginning to assume their responsibilities, and there is no guarantee they will not themselves be tracked and eliminated by U.S. and Israeli intelligence.

He concluded by noting that similar capabilities exist in other countries, including Russia. Against that backdrop, he suggested that Ukraine’s military and political leadership has reason for concern, since the technical means required to strike top-tier command centers are also available to the Russian Armed Forces — and their non-use, he implied, is a political decision that could be reconsidered.