Mossad and CIA Shift to HUMINT in Hunt for Iran Supreme Leader Khamenei Who Has Gone Dark for 150 Days

The Times of London reported that Mossad and the CIA are conducting joint and separate efforts to locate Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since his father's death in the February 28 airstrike . According to the report, Khamenei has not used a phone or laptop for more than 150 days and is believed to be sheltering in an underground bunker, possibly beneath Tehran or in a military facility near Qom roughly 50 kilometers from the capital, avoiding daylight movement over concern about US satellite detection; some intelligence officials assess he may have died of wounds from the strike, while others believe he survived with a disfigured face and has skipped his father's funeral events . The Times said agencies previously relied on cyber methods, including hacking Tehran traffic cameras, to track the elder Khamenei before the strike, but are now shifting to human intelligence because Mojtaba has gone dark electronically, with messages reportedly passed through layered couriers . Former Mossad official Rami Igra told the paper that locating him will likely require recruiting an agent in direct contact with him, comparing the effort to the bin Laden hunt, while a former senior US intelligence official said Iran has been a "no-go zone" for US HUMINT for 40 years and that Israeli human intelligence is comparatively stronger . Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said he personally met Khamenei and described him as recovering well .