Iran begins purge after Hamas chief assassinated in Tehran

Iranian security forces conducted a thorough search of the guesthouse complex.

New Delhi:

In response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital, Tehran, Iran has arrested more than two dozen people, including high-ranking intelligence officers, military officials and staff at a military guesthouse in the capital, the New York Times reported.

The elite Israeli intelligence agency Mossad recruited Iranian security agents to plant explosives in the guesthouse where Haniyeh was staying. Haniyeh, who headed Hamas’s political office in Qatar, was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president. The assassination, which came just hours after the president’s inauguration ceremony, is seen as a massive intelligence and security failure for Iran.

“The notion that Iran is incapable of defending either its homeland or its key allies could prove fatal to the Iranian regime because it essentially signals to its enemies that if they fail to overthrow the Islamic Republic, they can behead it,” Ali Vaez, director of the International Crisis Group, told the New York Times.

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Iranian security forces conducted a thorough search of the guesthouse complex, detaining staff, confiscating electronic devices and examining surveillance footage and guest lists. Senior military and intelligence officials responsible for Tehran’s security were also questioned, and several were detained pending further investigation.

In the IRGC-run compound, Haniyeh lived in a room he frequently used during his visits to Tehran.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or the IRGC’s specialized intelligence unit for espionage, has taken the lead in the investigation. The unit is actively pursuing suspects to uncover the network responsible for the attack.

Iranian and Hamas officials have accused Israel of organizing the attack, a position supported by several U.S. officials. Israel, while maintaining its position of eliminating Hamas’s military capabilities, has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to The Telegraph, Israel’s original plan was to assassinate Haniyeh in May during his visit to Tehran for the funeral of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. The operation was aborted because of the overwhelming crowds, which posed a high risk of failure, according to two Iranian officials who spoke to The Telegraph. Two agents, working under the direction of the Mossad, placed explosive devices in three separate rooms of an IRGC guesthouse in northern Tehran.

The killing was confirmed by IRGC officials, who now believe that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar-al-Mahdi security unit, a group responsible for protecting high-ranking officials at home and abroad.

Israel has previously targeted Iranian nuclear scientists and military commanders, including the high-profile assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020. These operations often involved advanced technology and precision execution.

Days before Haniyeh’s assassination, Iranian Intelligence Minister Seyed Esmaeil Khatib had claimed success in dismantling the Mossad infiltrator network. But Haniyeh’s killing belied those claims of any security failure.