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(CNN) – The Iranian nuclear scientist killed on Friday in eastern Tehran was shot by a remote-controlled machine gun operating from another car, the semi-official Fars news agency said on Sunday.
While senior Iranian officials blame Israel for the attack, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and other figures in Iran vowed revenge for the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was the country’s top nuclear scientist.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh
Conflicting reports
Iranian news agencies offered conflicting accounts of how the attack unfolded.
A report released Sunday by Fars News said Fakhrizadeh was traveling with his wife on Friday in a bulletproof car, alongside three security personnel vehicles, when he heard what sounded like bullets hitting a vehicle and got out of the car to determine what had happened.
When he exited the vehicle, a remote-controlled machine gun opened fire from a stopped Nissan vehicle about 150 meters from Fakhrizadeh’s car, Fars News said.
Fakhrizadeh was shot at least three times, according to Fars News. His bodyguard was also shot. After the shots were fired, the Nissan exploded, Fars News reported, adding that the attack lasted three minutes.
CNN cannot independently confirm the news agency’s version of events.
The semi-official Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) also reported that Fakhrizadeh’s car was hit by gunfire, followed by an explosion and more gunfire, citing Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Amir Hatami.
Comparison with the Soleimani attack
“According to reports received from members of his security detachment, Mr. Fakhrizadeh’s vehicle was initially shot at, after which a Nissan vehicle loaded with explosives blew up in close proximity to them as shots continued at his vehicle” . Hatami said, according to ISNA.
IRIB, the Iranian state television, said the blast occurred first, followed by shots fired from the attackers.
Seyed Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, compared the killing to the attack on Qasem Soleimani, the Islamic Republic’s state news agency reported on Sunday. Soleimani, the leader of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in a US drone strike earlier this year in Iraq.
“Without a doubt, the Islamic Republic of Iran will give a calculated and decisive response to the criminals who took away the martyr Fakhrizadeh,” Kharrazi was quoted as saying.
Fakhrizadeh was the head of the new technology research center in the elite Revolutionary Guard and a leading figure in Iran’s nuclear program.
Iranian leaders blame Israel
Supreme Leader Khameini wrote on Saturday on a Twitter account that often carries his official statements: “The oppressive enemies assassinated Mr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. This exceptional scientific mind lost his life for his great timeless scientific work. He lost his life for God and the supreme leader.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on the international community “to end its shameful double standards” and “condemn this act of state terror.” He added that the attack showed “serious indications of a role for Israel.”
Maj. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, Khamenei’s military adviser, tweeted on Saturday that “Zionists” are seeking to create “all-out war” and vowed to “strike like lightning” on Fakhrizadeh’s killers.
President Hassan Rouhani, also among the many Iranian leaders who blame Israel, vowed retaliation and said during a cabinet meeting on Saturday: “The idea labs and the enemies of Iran must know that the Iranian nation and the officials in charge in the country are brave and are determined to respond to the murder in due course.
The assassination, he said, was carried out “by the dirty hands of the oppressors, in concert with the illegitimate Zionist regime.”
What Israel Says
Iran has not provided evidence of Israeli involvement. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment to CNN on Friday.
Israel’s Minister for Settlement Affairs Tzachi Hanegbi told Israel News Channel 12 that he “had no idea” who killed Fakhrizadeh, but called it “very embarrassing for Iran.”
The US State Department and the International Atomic Energy Agency have said in multiple reports that Fakhrizadeh had in-depth knowledge of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear capabilities. In 2018, Netanyahu said Fakhrizadeh was the head of Project Amad, which he and others describe as a secret nuclear weapons effort.
“Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh,” the prime minister told reporters at the time.
Protests erupt in Tehran
The assassination threatens to exacerbate tensions in relations between Tehran and Washington, which have deteriorated under US President Donald Trump. In 2018, Trump withdrew from a multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, and Iran began withdrawing its commitments from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action last year. Trump has invoked economic sanctions against the country.
The White House is closely monitoring Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, he said. On Friday, Trump retweeted Israeli journalist Yossi Melman, who wrote that Fakhrizadeh “was the head of Iran’s secret military program, wanted for many years by Mossad,” Israel’s foreign intelligence agency.
Iranian students and youth have gathered at various government buildings in Tehran and, at a rally outside the Foreign Ministry on Saturday, protesters burned US and Israeli flags and posters showing Trump and President-elect Joe Biden.
The European Union condemned the killing and called for “maximum restraint”, while the UK Foreign Office said it was “trying to establish the facts urgently”.
Fakhrizadeh’s funeral and burial will take place on Monday, Fars News reported. Fakhrizadeh’s remains were taken to Imam Reza shrine, one of the most important religious centers for Shiites, in Mashhad on Saturday. After a Sunday service in Mashhad, his body was to be taken to Tehran, to the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic.
CNN’s Ramin Mostaghim, Angela Dewan, and Samantha Beech contributed to this report.
