Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed by short-range projectile, says Iran
1. Dozens arrested to investigate assassination
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Saturday that Israel killed Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh using a “short-range projectile” launched from outside of his accommodation in Tehran.
“This terrorist operation was carried out by firing a short-range projectile with a warhead of about 7 kilograms — causing a strong explosion — from outside the accommodation area,” the Guards said in a statement.
It added that Israel was “supported by the United States” in the attack.
Haniyeh was killed early Wednesday in the Iranian capital where he was attending the swearing-in of the new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
The Guards repeated their insistence that Haniyeh would be avenged and that Israel would receive “a severe punishment at the appropriate time, place and manner.”
On Saturday, the ultraconservative Kayhan daily said retaliatory operations were expected to be “more diverse, more dispersed and impossible to intercept.”
“This time, areas such as Tel Aviv and Haifa and the strategic centers and especially residences of some officials involved in the recent crimes are among the targets,” the newspaper said in an opinion piece.
Meanwhile, 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 fervour 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. 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.
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.—Agencies
