After Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran’s Tehran, the Iranian govt has arrested over two dozen people over suspected links with the murder. The arrested persons include senior intelligence officers, military officials and staff workers at the military-run guesthouse in Tehran where a pre-planted precision bomb killed Haniyeh and his bodyguard on 31 July, as per a report by the New York Times.
The assassination allegedly by Israel revealed a massive security breach, and as a result the arrests have been made. Iran has been humiliated following the murder of its guest, and a massive probe has been launched to catch those responsible for the breach.
“The perception that Iran can neither protect its homeland nor its key allies could be fatal for the Iranian regime, because it basically signals to its foes that if they can’t topple the Islamic Republic, they can decapitate it,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran director for the International Crisis Group.
Iran and Hamas have alleged that Israel was behind the assassination, a view supported by some US officials. However, Israel has not acknowledged its role in the attack in Tehran.
While Iran claims that Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a missile attack on the guest house he was staying in Tehran, reports indicate that it was a bomb planted in his room. The New York Times reported yesterday that the bomb was planted in the room where the Hamas chief was staying in the guest house two months ago, and it was remotely detonated after confirming his presence. The report cited seven Middle Eastern officials including two Iranians and an American official.
As per the report, the photographs of the scene do not support the missile theory, and it matches with a bomb blast. The guesthouse is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and is part of a large compound, known as Neshat, in northern Tehran.
Ismail Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of the new president. Reportedly he stayed in the same guesthouse earlier during his Tehran visits. The remotely detonated bomb present in his room killed him and his security guard at around 2 AM on Wednesday.
The Telegraph reported on Friday that Mossad hired Iranian security agents to plant explosives in three separate rooms of the guesthouse in May this year. The original plan was to kill the Hamas chief in May itself, when he was in Iran to attend the funeral of former Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi. However, the plan was not executed due to the presence of large crowds in the building and the high possibility of its failure.
Therefore, two Iranian agents planted three explosive devices in three rooms of the guesthouse where Haniyeh might stay in his future visits. According to the officials who have CCTV footage of the building, the agents moved stealthily and entered and exited multiple rooms within minutes.
The Axios also confirmed independently that the bomb was smuggled in two months ago after it was reported by NYT. As per the report, it was a hi-tech device using artificial intelligence. It is also being reported that the bomb was very precise. While it destroyed the room and killed Hamas chief and his bodyguard, the occupants of the adjacent rooms were unharmed.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah was staying next door to Haniyeh, but his room was barely damaged and he was unharmed, according to Iranian officials, indicating the precise nature of the device.
However, Iran continues to claim that it was a missile fired from a drone. But, while a missile can target a building precisely, the possibility of a missile hitting a specific room in a building so precisely is very low. Moreover, the arrest of military and intelligence officials and guesthouse staff shows that Iranian authorities now believe that it was a bomb.
It is not known how the devices were planted and hidden that they could be spotted in two months. It is also not whether the bomb was detonated from inside Iran or outside.
