FT: Khamenei's assassination was also enabled by cyberattacks, Israel managed to hack Iran's camera system for years

The targeted assassination of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was partly enabled by a series of long-term cyberattacks, the British newspaper The Financial Times (FT) reported, citing several anonymous sources within Israeli intelligence.

The newspaper states that Israel has been able to hack Iran's traffic surveillance camera system for years.

The images, which were transmitted live to Israeli spies, allowed them to confirm the time of a meeting between Iran's supreme leader and some of his close advisers. The meeting was the target of Israeli and American air strikes on February 28.

According to the Financial Times, Israeli state-sponsored hackers also previously disrupted the telephone network around the attack site to prevent the Iranian leader from being alerted in the event of a leak.

The attack was also made possible by information provided by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Israeli and Iranian cyberspies have been waging a fierce battle for 30 years, using disinformation campaigns, gathering information on senior civilian and military officials, and hacking sensitive infrastructure.