Operation Rising Lion!

A sworn enemy of Israel and state sponsor of international terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Iran had spent decades not just seeking a nuclear program but also building up a network of militant Islamic militias to surround Israel and prevent it from being able to directly strike Iran.

Hamas in the Gaza enclave, Hezbollah to Israel’s north in Lebanon, the Assad regime in Syria, a web of Shiite groups in Iraq and the Houthis in western Yemen constituted the backbone of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance.”

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The October 7, 2023 terrorist attack was the largest single day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, in which Hamas murdered 1,200 while raping, pillaging, looting and kidnapping its way across southern Israel. Iran’s “unity of fronts” containment strategy of Israel immediately kicked in as soon as Israeli bombs began falling on Gaza. Hezbollah rockets and Houthi ballistic missiles took aim at Israel to compel the Jewish state to end its war against Hamas.

Undeterred, Israel severely degraded Hamas through an aggressive year-long campaign to eliminate its tunnel system which rivaled the London underground, while wiping out Hezbollah in a bonanza of intelligence and military victories concentrated in September 2024.

The defeat of Hezbollah coupled with years of civil war, massive corruption and an invasion by the Turkish backed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham advancing out of Idlib yielded the near overnight collapse of the Assad regime in Syria that December.

Suddenly, Iran was exposed like never before with its Axis in shambles. Its only defense against Israel was the two-thousand kilometer gap separating them, a network of air defenses and a robust ballistic missile program which had great potential to reign considerable terror upon the Israeli population.

Still Iran’s aggressive rhetoric towards Israel only increased. The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) announced by June 9, 2025 that Iran completely failed to cooperate with its inspectors and continued to maintain secret underground development sites at Natanz and Fordow. The Agency concluded that Iran had stockpiled 233 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium under the auspices of an energy program, but had the capacity to manufacture enough weapons grade uranium, enriched to 90%, within a span of 2-3 days to arm several atomic warheads.

A nuclear armed Iran was not simply a threat to the entire Middle East, but existential to Israel. While most of the world hesitated, Israel acted.

Planning was critical. Penetrating Iran’s air defenses while simultaneously destroying its offensive capability of several thousand ballistic missiles was a serious undertaking. Failing to get inside Iran’s response time in which Iran would detect the impending attack and launch waves of ballistic missiles in a counterstrike against Israel could result in catastrophic numbers of civilian casualties. Meanwhile, Iran would relocate its nuclear stockpiles and its leaders would descend into bunkers, rendering the Israeli attack futile.

In taking out Hezbollah, Iran’s number one proxy in mere days throughout September 2024, Israel revealed itself to possess a world class military and intelligence network. In June 2025, Israel once again proved its capabilities by launching a multi pronged aerial assault against nearly all strategic assets of Iran. In a mere twelve days, Iran was left in one of its weakest states ever while Israel sustained minimal losses.

Mossad agents months in advance penetrated Iran by smuggling in precision guided weapons and explosive laden drones. They established clandestine bases and launch sites near Iranian missile launchers and air defense assets.

In coordination with the Israeli Air Force, each were activated in the early morning hours of June 13. With zero advance notice, as the attacks came from mere miles away, multiple Iranian surface-to-air (SAM) missile launchers were destroyed, radar systems were neutralized and surface-to surface ballistic missile launchers were wiped out.

Meanwhile two hundred, mostly fifth generation Israeli stealthy aircraft, utilizing both Iraqi and Syrian airspaces, deployed hundreds of air launched ballistic missiles (ALBM) against preselected targets based on careful planning by Israeli intelligence.

ALBM’s such as Blue Sparrow, ROCKS, and Air LORA created a specific standoff advantage for Israel. Ground launched ballistic missiles, discharged two thousand kilometers away, even though traveling many times the speed of sound, would be detected by Iran and counterstrikes launched before the first missile impacted.

ALBM’s deployed by stealthy aircraft operating in a forward zone just scores of miles from the Iranian border impacted prior to Iran even detecting the launches, neutralizing much of Iran’s counterstrike capabilities. Wave after wave of Israeli ALBM strikes that night wreaked havoc on Iranian weapon systems, leadership and nuclear program.

In a decapitation campaign, more than twenty top military commanders were simultaneously assassinated, many in their beds by precision Israeli missiles. These included IRGC Commander Hossein Salami and the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Mohammad Bagheri.

Others, such as IRGC Air Force Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, along with his entire officer staff, were wiped out in an Israeli missile strike on an underground base. The location of this site had already been mapped by the Mossad, who knew it was the designated rendezvous point for commanders to gather in case of an Israeli attack.

Scores of mobile ballistic missile launchers and air defense radars were demolished, hundreds of stockpiled missiles were destroyed, the entire dual use base at Tabriz was lost, while a missile production facility in Shiraz was targeted. Meanwhile the nuclear facility at Natanz was struck and multiple top tier nuclear scientists were assassinated in precision missile strikes, such as Mohammad Mehdi and Fereydoon Abbasi Davani.

Partial paralysis set in. Iran struggled to cope with the simultaneous command vacuum and elimination of most of its offensive assets, resulting in a multitude of disjointed responses.

While several waves of ballistic missiles were launched against Israel, nearly all of Iran’s targeting systems were destroyed. Iran therefore lobbed their missiles indiscriminately against Israeli population centers versus any strategic targets.

Israeli air defenses picked off almost the entirety of each barrage. Throughout the twelve days, several missiles did get through, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries. With each passing day however, fewer and fewer missiles were launched, as a vast majority of Iran’s launchers and stockpiles had been eliminated.

With Iranian air defenses almost entirely neutralized, the Israeli Air Force established and maintained an effective air corridor stretching from Israel, through Iraq and Syria, and over much of Iran.

The long RTT (round trip time) across the two-thousand-kilometer gap required the Israeli Air Force to perform continuous aerial refueling to enable its seamless operational tempo. Within days, even fourth generation non stealthy aircraft were operating directly in Iranian airspace; conducting precision strikes against hardened targets, since a majority of Iran’s mobile assets were destroyed in the initial waves.

Taking advantage of the elimination of Iranian air defenses, the U.S. launched the single night Operation Midnight Hammer on June 22 to finish off Iran’s nuclear program. While multidimensional, the U.S.’s primary target was Fordow, located under a mountain, in which multiple 30,000 pound GBU-57 MOP (Massive Ordinance Penetrator) bombs were dropped from B2 Stealth Bombers.

Much fanfare was made in the U.S. about the success of the Operation, but all the credit is really owed to Israel. The U.S. had war gamed such an attack for years, but never attempted it due to the complexities of overcoming Iran’s air defenses and the unpredictable retaliation of its vast proxy network.

Because of Israel’s dismantling of Iran’s Axis of Resistance and incredible success of Rising Lion, Iran never even got a single shot off at the Americans on the night of the 22^nd and its proxies were hapless to respond.

In a world of increasing danger in which a growing network of authoritarian regimes continuously threaten the global order, Rising Lion stands as a courageous example of a free world nation identifying threats and taking decisive action to neutralize them.

Jeffrey Owens is the Author of the Victory in Europe: A People’s History of the Second World War. He is from Grove City, Ohio, United States. Jeffrey is the correspondent of Mahabahu.

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