NEW YORK: Top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated Wednesday by a bomb that was covertly smuggled into the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying two months before his arrival, according to a leading American newspaper.

Haniyeh, 62, who was initially thought to have been killed in an airstrike, died from a remotely detonated bomb inside the guesthouse, The New York Times reported, saying it interviewed seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians and an American official in this regard.

The bomb was hidden inside the guesthouse approximately two months before Haniyeh's visit, five of the Middle Eastern officials told the Times.

Quoting sources, the Times said the bomb detonated remotely once it was confirmed Haniyeh was inside the room at around 2am local time.

The explosion was so targeted that the room where the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, next door sustained little damage, Iranian officials told The Times.

The officials likened the attack’s precision to the killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated by Israel using a remote controlled machine gun in 2020

The explosion also killed a bodyguard, according to the report. The guesthouse Haniyeh was staying at is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Neshat, a neighborhood of northern Tehran.

IRGC members briefed on the incident said the explosion shook the entire building, shattering windows and causing part of an exterior wall to collapse. Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran's new president.