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Credit, Reuters
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was attacked in his car with explosives and firearms
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the top scientist in Iran’s nuclear program, was killed on Friday (11/27) near the capital Tehran, according to the country’s Defense Ministry.
Fakhrizadeh, 62, died while receiving treatment at a hospital after being attacked in Damavand County.
Iranian news agencies reported that the attackers set off a car bomb near the scientist’s car and then shot him.
Western intelligence agencies saw Fakhrizadeh as the mastermind behind Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program. According to several of these reports, he was the “creator of the Iranian bomb.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif condemned the crime and linked Israel to the incident.
“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today,” Zarif wrote in a Twitter post.
“This cowardice, with serious indications of Israeli involvement, shows the desperate warmongering of the assassins. Iran calls on the international community, and especially the European Union, to end its shameful double standards and condemn this act of state terror” .
Credit, Reuters
Fakhrizadeh was the head of the Research and Innovation Organization of the Iranian Ministry of Defense.
The Iranian government said that Fakhrizadeh is now a “martyr.” He held the position of director of the Research and Innovation Organization of the Ministry of Defense.
The news of the assassination comes amid growing international concern over the increasing amount of enriched uranium produced by Iran. Enriched uranium is an important component for nuclear power generation, but it can also be used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
Tehran has historically declared that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
The attack
The Iranian Defense Ministry said that “after a clash between the terrorists and Fakhrizadeh’s bodyguards, the scientist was seriously injured and was rushed to hospital.”
The Fars news agency, linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (a division of the Iranian armed forces), published photos of two vehicles linked to the attack on Fakhrizadeh on Friday.
The images showed several holes in the windshield of the scientist’s car. Another image, which is not very clear, shows the damage of an apparent explosion. Fars cited witnesses who explained that they first heard an explosion and then gunshots.
The scientist was transferred to a hospital but died within minutes after being admitted.
“Unfortunately, the medical team was unable to revive him and just a few minutes ago, the administrator and scientist achieved a high martyr status after years of effort and struggle,” the Defense Ministry said.
Credit, EPA
Among the released images are the remains of a vehicle that would have been detonated near Fakhrizadeh’s car.
Fakhrizadeh was born in 1958 in the city of Qom, Iran, was a professor of physics and appointed by Western intelligence agencies as director of “Project Amad”, the alleged secret program of 1989 to promote the manufacture of a nuclear bomb.
The program was canceled in 2003, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Hossein Salami, said that Iran would avenge the murder of the scientist.
“The murder of nuclear scientists is the most obvious violation of global hegemony to impede our access to modern science,” Salami said.
The military adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s “supreme leader,” also vowed to take revenge on those responsible for the crime.
“We are going to attack the murderers of this fallen martyr with thunder and make them regret their action,” Hossein Dehghan tweeted.
Credit, Reuters
Iran accused Israel of the murder; Netanyahu named Fakhrizadeh by name in 2018
Fakhrizadeh’s death joins that of four other Iranian nuclear scientists who were assassinated between 2010 and 2012. Iran accused the State of Israel of being involved in a plot to assassinate its scientists.
Fakhrizadeh was nominally quoted in 2018 by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he presented an extensive investigation into the Iranian nuclear program.
“Remember that name,” said the Israeli prime minister. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the news of the assassination.
The US Pentagon has also not ruled on the case, according to Reuters.
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