Iranian officials and Hamas said Wednesday that Israel was responsible for the assassination.
Iran has launched sweeping investigation into the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh by arresting more than two dozen people, according to New York Times report.
Iran has arrested more than two dozen people, including senior intelligence officers, military officials and staff workers at a military-run guesthouse in Tehran, in response to a “huge and humiliating security breach” that enabled the assassination of a top leader of Hamas, the report said quoting two Iranians familiar with the investigation.
“The fervor of the response to the killing of Haniyeh underscores what a devastating security failure this was for Iran’s leadership, with the assassination occurring at a heavily guarded compound in the country’s capital within hours of the swearing-in ceremony of the country’s new president,” the New York Times reported.
Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, hired Iranian security agents to plant explosives in three separate rooms of the building where Ismail Haniyeh was staying, Britain’s the Telegraph reported.
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Iranian officials and Hamas said Wednesday that Israel was responsible for the assassination. But Israel has not acknowledged that it was responsible for planting the bomb.
Earlier, NYT reported that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was martyred in Tehran by a bomb smuggled into the guesthouse where he was staying a few months.
According to the NYT report, the explosion occurred around 2am local time and was triggered remotely, causing significant damage. It shook the building, shattered windows, and partially collapsed an exterior wall.
The bomb was detonated remotely once it was confirmed that Haniyeh was inside his room at the guesthouse. The blast also killed a bodyguard
The explosion shook the building, shattered some windows, and caused a partial collapse of an exterior wall, according to two Iranian officials from the Revolutionary Guards briefed on the incident.
