Hamas leader Haniyeh killed in Iran

CAIRO/DUBAI, July 31 (Reuters) : Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran early on Wednesday morning, an attack that drew threats of revenge on Israel and fuelled further concern that the conflict in Gaza was turning into a wider Middle East war.

The Palestinian militant group and Iran's Revolutionary Guards confirmed Haniyeh's death. The Guards said it took place hours after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for Iran's new president.

Although the attack was widely assumed to have been carried out by Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government made no claim of responsibility and said it would not make any comment on the killing.

Haniyeh, normally based in Qatar, had been the face of Hamas's international diplomacy as the war set off by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 has raged in Gaza.

He had been taking part in internationally-brokered indirect talks on reaching a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.

The assassination took place less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have killed a Hezbollah commander in the Lebanese capital Beirut in retaliation for a deadly strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The latest events appear to set back chances of any imminent ceasefire agreement in the nearly 10-month-old war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian Hamas.

Hamas' armed wing said in a statement Haniyeh's killing would "take the battle to new dimensions and have major repercussions".