Hamas Political Bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh is said to have been killed by an explosive device or bomb that was smuggled into the guesthouse in Tehran where he was staying.
As reported by The New York Times, seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians, and a United States official believe that Ismail Haniyeh was killed by a smuggled bomb.
The bomb had been hidden about two months ago in the guesthouse where Haniyeh was staying, the Middle East official said. The guesthouse is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and is part of a large complex, known as Neshat, in an upscale neighborhood in northern Tehran.
Sources said Haniyeh was in the Iranian capital to attend the presidential inauguration. The bomb was detonated remotely, after it was confirmed that he was in his room at the guesthouse. The blast also killed a bodyguard.
Iranian and Hamas officials said Wednesday that Israel was responsible for the killing, an assessment shared by several unnamed U.S. officials.
Haniyeh’s killing threatens to trigger another wave of violence in the Middle East and undermine ongoing negotiations to end the war in Gaza. Haniyeh was the main negotiator in the ceasefire talks.
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The sources also said Israel has not publicly admitted responsibility for the killing, but Israeli intelligence officials briefed the United States and other Western governments on details of the operation after the incident.
But Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken denied the allegation. The United States, he said, had no prior information about the assassination plot.
Within hours of the killing, speculation immediately focused on the possibility that Israel had killed Haniyeh with a missile strike, perhaps fired from a drone or aircraft, similar to the way Israel launched missiles at a military base in Isfahan in April.
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The missile theory raises questions about how Israel could evade Iran’s air defense systems again to carry out such a daring airstrike on the capital.
It turns out the assassins were able to exploit a different kind of gap in Iran’s defenses. A gap in the security of this supposedly heavily guarded complex.
The death of Haniyeh in Iran is a major failure in the field of intelligence and security for Iran and is a huge embarrassment for the Revolutionary Guards. They used the complex for retreats, secret meetings, and residence for prominent guests such as Haniyeh. (Z-2)
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