Frederick Forsyth, the master spy thriller writer who left for Elysium recently, had a beautiful talent for writing such meticulously detailed novels that, in some cases, reality followed his imagination. Icon, about the rise of a Russian demagogue after the Cold War, eerily foretold Vladimir Putin’s ascent. The Fist of God revolved around a US-UK plot to destroy Saddam Hussein’s imaginary nuclear weapons.Of course, Saddam tried. Iraq’s Osirak reactor, built with French help, was flattened by the Israeli Air Force in 1981 during Operation Opera—a preemptive strike that set the standard for surgical audacity. Fast forward two decades, and the Bush administration used fictional WMDs to justify war, only to find ghosts in the ruins.But it’s not Iraq that Israel has watched most closely. It’s Iran—a regime that has spent decades perfecting the art of ambiguity while inching toward nuclear breakout capability. And while the West holds UN sessions and drafts toothless resolutions, Israel acts—sometimes quietly, often lethally.Stuxnet. Magnetic bombs in Tehran traffic. Scientists who never saw the sunrise. And now, Operation Rising Lion—an operation so precise and so devastating that it felt like Forsyth wrote the script that Netanyahu directed, Mossad and IDF produced.
Operation Rising Lion : A Strategic Deep Dive
In the early hours of June 13, 2025, Israel unleashed a three-pronged campaign into the very heart of Iranian military infrastructure. Prime Minister Netanyahu called it “a historic campaign unlike any other.” And for once, he undersold it. This wasn’t about showing capability. It was about consequences.
The Three Phases
Operation Rising Lion was a chess game played over years. Israeli intelligence had spent months embedding assets, surveying terrain, identifying vulnerabilities, and pre-positioning ordnance.
- Phase 1 — Mossad constructed an underground drone base near Tehran. This wasn’t a forward operating station—it was a
Trojan horse built with screwdrivers, cash, and perfect Farsi. As the operation commenced, kamikaze drones launched toward the Asfajaabad missile base, shredding Iran’s missile silos before a single projectile could be fired. - Phase 2 — IDF units, using Mossad-planted precision-guided weapons systems, activated pre-positioned devices near radar and air defence sites. The blasts took out radar arrays, missile guidance systems, and anti-air platforms, rendering Iranian skies blind.
- Phase 3 — With airspace cleared, Israeli fighter jets flew in. Guided by real-time telemetry from drones and operatives, they launched bunker-busting munitions into fortified complexes—most notably Natanz and Parchin. Iran’s second-strike options were nullified.
A Secret Base
In one of the most audacious feats of clandestine engineering, Mossad didn’t just infiltrate Iranian territory—it built an explosive drone base inside it. Situated near Tehran, it served as a launch point for explosive-laden UAVs targeting missile infrastructure. Simultaneously, guided weapons in central Iran were activated, demolishing radar arrays and missile guidance platforms. With Iran’s defences neutralised, the skies opened up.The operation unfolded as:Planted Precision — Pre-positioned munitions remotely detonated.Concealed Launchers — Smuggled Israeli systems disguised as civilian vehicles took out remaining air defences.Drone Swarms — Kamikaze UAVs from the clandestine base vaporised Iran’s missile capacity.
What Was Hit—and Who Was Killed—and How?
This wasn’t war by attrition. It was war by forensic scheduling—each man identified, tracked, and struck at his most vulnerable.Four senior figures were killed in coordinated assassinations:Major General Hossein Salami — Head of the IRGC, killed at his fortified residence in Shahrak Shahid Mahalati. A micro-drone, disguised as part of the HVAC system, infiltrated his study and detonated with surgical precision.Dr. Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani — Former Atomic Energy Organisation chief, targeted en route to a secure facility. A quadcopter drone, pre-programmed and GPS-locked, struck his vehicle outside Parchin.General Mohammad Bagheri — Iran’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff, eliminated at a temporary coordination hub in north Tehran. Israeli drones triangulated his position using cellular signal interception; a laser-guided munition did the rest.General Amir Ali Hajizadeh — Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, killed at Asfajaabad after stepping out of a hardened bunker. A loitering munition, likely IDF-operated and visually confirmed, hit his parked vehicle just as he approached.These were not opportunistic hits. Each was the product of months of surveillance, facial recognition, signal capture, and a strike matrix that synchronised bombs with biometric certainty. They didn’t die because they were careless. They died because Israel knew exactly where and when to look.
Strategic Targets Destroyed
- Natanz Nuclear Complex — Bunker-busters collapsed centrifuge halls and electrical nodes.
- Parchin Military Complex — Suspected nuclear warhead site destroyed. Secondary explosions confirmed presence of volatile materials.
- Shahrak Shahid Mahalati — IRGC elite residential zone. Three high-rises demolished in precision strikes.
- Asfajaabad Base — Missile infrastructure reduced to rubble.
Legacy of Precision: A Doctrine Forged in Shadow
FILE – Missiles are carried on a truck as an Iranian army band leader conducts the music band during Army Day parade at a military base in northern Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
Operation Rising Lion joins a long tradition:
- 1960 – Operation Finale — Mossad agents tracked and captured Adolf Eichmann in Argentina, smuggled him back to Israel, and put him on trial. It showed the world that time and distance do not dilute justice.
- 1981 – Operation Opera — Israeli jets flew over 1,000 miles to destroy Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in a single, perfectly-timed raid. It preemptively crushed Saddam’s nuclear ambitions.
- 2007 – Operation Orchard — A suspected Syrian nuclear reactor built with North Korean help was obliterated in minutes by the Israeli Air Force. Damascus denied it even existed—until the debris told another story.
- 2010–2020 – Iran’s Vanishing Scientists — From Tehran traffic to lab corridors, five top nuclear scientists were assassinated, culminating in the machine-gun hit on
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh . It was a shadow war fought in daylight.
Israel doesn’t bluff. It enforces.
International Reaction and Literary Echoes
Tehran denied the scale of damage. Foreign Minister Abdollahian called it “Zionist terrorism.” Russia issued a tepid condemnation. China urged restraint. The US said nothing—suggesting tacit approval. Analysts across Langley, Vauxhall Cross, and RAW’s Lodhi Road studied every second. For them, Rising Lion isn’t just a success—it’s a syllabus. And somewhere in a leather-bound edition of The Fist of God, the pages hum with vindication. What Forsyth imagined, Israel executed.
Strategic Takeaways
- Human Intelligence Is the Ultimate Weapon — Mastery over terrain, language, and loyalty trumped firepower.
- This Wasn’t War—It Was Orchestration — Drone swarms, planted bombs, satellite coordination—a symphony of destruction.
- Air Defence Is a Delusion — Iran’s S-300s and Bavar-373 systems never saw it coming.
- Assassination Is Deterrence — Elites killed in their beds and bunkers sent a clear message.
The Real Fist of God
That wasn’t fiction. It was the cold calculus of a man who knew how real stories end. In one night, Israel rewrote doctrine—and genre. Where others saw deterrence as theatre, it delivered a climax without rehearsal. The drones, the assassinations—every thread bore Forsyth’s spirit: precise, plausible, and terrifyingly efficient. Because if The Fist of God imagined the plot, Operation Rising Lion executed it.