Tehran. Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad had tasked Iranian security agents to plant explosives in the building in Tehran where Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was staying. According to the report, initially there was a plan to kill Haniyeh in May when he had come to Tehran for the funeral of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
The report quoted two Iranian officials as saying that the operation was abandoned because of the huge crowd that had gathered and there was little chance of success. Two agents working under the direction of Mossad had placed explosive devices in three different rooms of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) guesthouse in northern Tehran. The location was strategically chosen as it was highly likely that Haniya would be staying there.
According to the report, surveillance footage with Iranian authorities shows the agents moving around stealthily. The footage shows the agents entering and exiting several rooms in a matter of minutes. After planting the device, they secretly left Iran. But their operatives were present inside the country. At 2 am on Wednesday, the operatives remotely detonated the explosives planted in the room where Hania was staying, killing him.
The killing has been confirmed by IRGC officials, who believe that Mossad employed agents of the Ansar-al-Mahdi security unit, which is tasked with protecting top-ranking leaders and officials inside and outside the country. Not only this, an IRGC official admitted that this is a humiliation for Iran and a huge security lapse.