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How Israel, the US and Iran deploy covert ops

Sometimes called sleeper cells, these anonymous agents employ deception to spy, sabotage or kill.

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How Israel, the US & Iran deploy covert ops
By Danylo Hawaleshka
Published On 16 Mar 2026

History Illustrated is a weekly series of insightful perspectives that places news events and current affairs into a historical context using graphics generated with artificial intelligence.

How Israel, the US & Iran deploy covert ops
They go by different names, these anonymous agents who blend into crowds, whose roles are to spy, sabotage or kill. Sleeper cells. Clandestine networks. Covert operatives. Their names vary, as do their roles. But whatever they are called, Israel, the United States and Iran have all deployed their agents against enemies abroad.
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How Israel, the US & Iran deploy covert ops
Operation Wrath of God, for example, was Israel’s response to the killing of 11 of its athletes by Black September, a Palestinian group, during the 1972 Munich Olympics. The covert operation ran for perhaps 20 years. It targeted Black September and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), killing dozens of people in Europe and Lebanon, both intended targets and civilian bystanders, with at least one case of mistaken identity.
How Israel, the US & Iran deploy covert ops
The end of Operation Wrath of God did not end the killing. In 2010, police in Dubai said Mossad intelligence agents assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his hotel room. He was described as a founder of Hamas’s military wing. Police identified 26 suspects who had entered Dubai in staggered waves under fake passports.
How Israel, the US & Iran deploy covert ops
A decade later, Mossad recruited people in Iran to strategically park a truck in Absard, a city about 70km (43.5 miles) east of Tehran. It was loaded with a hidden, remote-controlled machinegun. The target was Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
How Israel, the US & Iran deploy covert ops
The US is also infamous for its covert operations. For instance, the CIA in 1953 orchestrated the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. But not everything has gone to plan.
How Israel, the US & Iran deploy covert ops
In 2000, the CIA recruited a Russian scientist as a covert courier to deliver flawed plans for a nuclear bomb to Iran. The idea was that the plans would waste Iran’s time. But Operation Merlin backfired when the Russians exposed the CIA to the Iranians. The worry was that the plans may have actually helped the Iranians.
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How Israel, the US & Iran deploy covert ops
As for Iran, it has been implicated in a 2011 plot to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the US. Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian American, was sentenced to 25 years for conspiring with Iran's Quds Force to kill the ambassador in Washington.
How Israel, the US & Iran deploy covert ops
The assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on February 28, 2026, was aided by Israeli intelligence and a covert CIA source in Iran who reportedly confirmed Khamenei’s location. Cyberattacks by the US military then targeted Iran’s ability to see and communicate, while Israeli jets bombed Khamenei’s compound.
How Israel, the US & Iran deploy covert ops
On March 3, Qatar arrested 10 people suspected of spying and plotting sabotage for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. It all suggests countries will do almost anything, anywhere, if it serves their interests. And if they think they can get away with it.