The Mossad enlisted Iranian security agents to plant explosives in the Tehran guesthouse where Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was staying, according to a report in the Telegraph.
The report says the initial plan called for assassinating Haniyeh when visited Tehran in May to attend the funeral of president Ebrahim Raisi, but two Iranian officials tell the newspaper the operation was called off due to the large number of people in the building and seeming high possibility of failure.
The British daily says the agents nevertheless went ahead and planted explosives in three rooms at the compound, and later left Iran. They reportedly detonated the bombs from abroad.
“They are now certain that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi security unit,” an official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tells the newspaper, referring to a unit tasked with protecting senior officials.
Another IRGC official says: “It is a humiliation for Iran and a huge security breach.”
“It’s still a question for everyone how this happened, I can’t understand it. There must be something higher in the hierarchy that no one knows about,” the official adds.
