(Tehran) Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated by a “short-range projectile” fired at his residence in Tehran in an operation that Iran blames on Israel, the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, announced on Saturday.
“According to the investigations and investigations, this terrorist operation was carried out by firing a short-range projectile with a warhead of approximately 7 kilograms from outside the guests’ accommodation facility [provoquant] “a strong explosion,” they said in a statement published by the official Irna news agency.
Israel was “supported by the United States” in this operation, the Guards added.
Ismail Haniyeh was killed on Wednesday in a veterans’ residence in northern Tehran after attending the Iranian president’s inauguration ceremony.
PHOTO VAHID SALEMI, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh
The Palestinian Islamist movement, Iran and its allies blamed the attack on Israel, which has not commented, and vowed to retaliate.
The 61-year-old Hamas leader was killed by an “air projectile,” Iranian media reported.
THE New York Timesciting five Middle Eastern officials speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that he was killed by a bomb planted about two months ago in the residence where he was staying, protected by the Revolutionary Guards, in northern Tehran.
Israel “will certainly receive the response to this crime at the appropriate time, place and manner,” the Guards said Saturday.
Ismail Haniyeh’s death came a day after an Israeli strike killed Hezbollah military leader Fouad Shoukr near Beirut.
The two attacks have rekindled fears of a widening of the war between Israel and Iran and the groups it supports in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
As Iran and its allies prepare a response, the ultraconservative daily Kayhan said Saturday that they would strike Tel Aviv and Haifa and target Israeli officials.
“Areas such as Tel Aviv and Haifa and strategic centers and especially the residence of some officials involved in recent crimes are among the targets” of reprisals, the newspaper wrote.