Israel launched a stealth airstrike deep inside Syria, targeting a nearly completed nuclear reactor in a mission known as Operation Orchard. With zero warning and complete radio silence, Israeli jets flew undetected,

Syria: Team Israel was back at work again four years later, now in Syria. Syria’s new dictator, Bashar al-Assad, began pursuing nuclear weapons after taking power in 2000. North Korea was glad to help him.

Syria was once among the closest allies of the Islamic republic, but the new government resents Tehran’s support for the Assad regime and has pledged not to allow attacks on Israel from its territory.

While Iran has responded with deadly missile strikes on Israeli cities, Israel has shown its military and intelligence pre-eminence as its warplanes have crisscrossed the Middle East, hitting Iranian nuclear installations,

Gen. Hossein Salami was the chief of one of the country’s most powerful centers, and his death was a tough blow to Iran’s embattled leadership, which has had a series of setbacks in the past 20 months of Middle Eastern war and unrest. Salami rose to power six years ago and had a history of threatening the U.S. and Israel.

Israel's command of Iranian air space leaves few obstacles in the way of its expanding bombardment, though it will struggle to deal a knock-out blow to deeply buried nuclear sites without the U.S. joining the attack,