In some of the deadliest attacks since the start of Operation Roaring Lion, Israeli strikes pushed Iranian security forces to fall back and regroup at sports complexes before targeting those sites to devastating effect, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
Citing documents reviewed by the outlet, the Journal reported that the strikes, which occurred in the first week of the war, killed hundreds of Iranian military and security personnel.
The majority of those killed were reportedly at Azadi Stadium, one of the largest soccer stadiums in the region.
Citing social-media intelligence firm Storyful, a company owned by its parent company, the Journal reported that verified footage showed security officers lying on the ground outside another stadium following Israeli strikes.
Background to the strikes on the Iranian sports complexes
The strikes were made possible because Israeli intelligence had learned about the Iranian fallback plans, the Journal reported. These were triggered after the joint Israeli-US strikes of the first day of the war wreaked havoc on Iranian missile launchers and air defenses.
Following those first attacks, the outlet noted, the US and Israel divided responsibilities, with Israel targeting infrastructure key to Tehran’s internal control while the US went after Iranian military and industrial targets.
In their actions, Israeli jets attacked a variety of targets ranging from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards' Basij militia to neighborhood police forces, the Journal reported.
These attacks reportedly triggered the fallback protocols.
Following the strikes on the sports complexes where the Iranian security forces had mustered, regime personnel flooded Tehran’s Gandhi hospital, forcing civilian patients to make room, a doctor told the Journal.
Iranian officials reportedly condemned the strikes as targeting civilians, and state media released images of the aftermath without acknowledging the presence of security forces, the Journal added.