Mossad hired IRGC agents to plant bomb that killed Haniyeh

Israel’s external intelligence agency, Mossad had hired Iranian security agents from the Islamic Revolutionary Group Corp (IRGC) to plant explosives in three separate rooms at the building where senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh stayed, reported The Telegraph in an exclusive report.

An explosion killed Haniyeh who was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of the Iran president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

The bombs were planted when Haniyeh attended the funeral of former Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi who perished in a helicopter crash in May.

However the operation did not take place due to the presence of large crowds in the building.

Haniyeh, it was learnt, lived in the same building when he visited Iran.

“They are now certain that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi protection unit,” an official within the IRGC told The Telegraph from Tehran, referring to an IRGC unit responsible for the safety of high-ranking officials.

He said: “Upon further investigation, they discovered additional explosive devices in two other rooms.”

A second official within the elite military forces of the IRGC told The Telegraph: “This is a humiliation for Iran and a huge security breach.”

The official said a working group had been established to come up with ideas to portray the assassination as not being a security breach.

“It’s still a question for everyone how it happened, I can’t make sense of it. There must be something higher up in the hierarchy that no one knows about,” he added.

In a related development the IRGC claimed that Haniyeh was killed by a short-range projectile, reported Al-Jazeera.

The attack against Haniyeh “was carried out by firing a short-range projectile carrying about 7kg [15.4lb] of explosive materials and launched from outside the guests residency”.