WASHINGTON, MAY 20: A failed Israeli strike on the Tehran home of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the start of the war was intended to free him from house arrest, The New York Times reported, citing US officials briefed on the operation.

According to the report, the strike was part of a broader Israeli plan, known to the United States, aimed at weakening Iran’s leadership and creating the conditions for regime change. US officials said Israel and the United States had considered Ahmadinejad, despite his hardline anti-Israel and anti-American record, as a potential figure who could help lead Iran after a leadership collapse.

The plan quickly unraveled. Ahmadinejad was injured in the first day of Israeli strikes, according to the report, and later became disillusioned with the regime-change effort. He has not been seen publicly since, and his current whereabouts and condition remain unknown.

US officials told the newspaper that the strike, carried out by the Israeli Air Force, was designed to kill the guards stationed around Ahmadinejad’s home and free him from confinement. The report said the house itself was not significantly damaged, but a security outpost near the entrance to the street was destroyed.

The former Iranian president, who led Iran from 2005 to 2013, has in recent years clashed with Iran’s leadership, accused senior officials of corruption, and was repeatedly blocked from running again for president. Iranian authorities had increasingly restricted his movements at his home in the Narmak district of eastern Tehran, according to the report.

The Times also reported that questions remain over how Ahmadinejad was recruited for the alleged plan. People close to him have previously faced accusations in Iran of having overly close ties to the West or even spying for Israel.

Iranian media initially reported that Ahmadinejad had been killed in an Israeli strike on his home. His political party later denied the reports, while official Iranian outlets said he had survived and that his guards had been killed.