Tracking the Secret War on Iran

Rumors about an imminent military attack on Iran over its nuclear program have come and gone for years. In recent weeks such talk has intensified, though it’s still anybody’s guess as to whether Israel or the United States might openly carry out military action any time soon. But most experts agree on one thing: A covert war with Iran has already been raging for years. Details are often murky, but the conflict has been punctuated with brazen assassinations, exploding missile sites, crippling cyberattacks, and a litany of arrests and spying allegations on all sides. Below is a timeline of major developments in the war—or at least the ones that are publicly known.

Explosions:

According to an in-depth report in Foreign Policy, Israeli agents, allegedly posing as CIA operatives, recruited members of a Pakistan-based terrorist group called Jundallah, apparently to conduct attacks inside Iran. Over the last decade, the group has repeatedly carried out attacks inside the country, including bombing Iranian mosques in 2009 and 2010. […]

Assassinations:
Ardeshir Husseinpour, an Iranian nuclear scientist, dies in January 2007. Iran officially says he died from asphyxiation “following a gas leak,” but suspects Israel is behind Husseinpour’s death. […]
Cyberattacks:

A computer worm known as Stuxnet infiltrates Iran’s nuclear facilities in mid to late 2009. The worm, reportedly tested in Israel, causes serious damage to Iran’s nuclear centrifuges—20 percent of them are destroyed. The cyberattack is thought to be an Israeli operation, possibly in cooperation with the US or other Western allies. […]

Disappearances:

Ali-Reza Asgari, a high-ranking official in former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami’s administration, goes missing in Turkey in 2006. Asgari’s disappearance gives rise to speculation that he’d been kidnapped or had defected, and had ended up in Israel. His whereabouts remain unclear. […]

Plane crashes:

Over a year and a half, three Revolutionary Guard airplanes go down in Iran on three separate occasions; one crash kills the Guard’s ground forces commander. Spokespeople for the Revolutionary Guard say that the planes’ engines “failed.” 2006-2007 […]

Arrests and spying allegations

Shahrazad Mir Gholikhan, an Iranian woman is arrested, charged, and sentenced to more than five years for allegedly attempting to export 3,000 “helmet-mounted Generation III U.S. military night vision goggles” from the US to Iran. November 2004.