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An Iranian nuclear scientist has died after an armed attack, according to state media.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh died in hospital on Friday from his injuries, Iranian state media reported.
“Unfortunately, the medical team failed to revive him, and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist achieved the high status of martyrdom after years of effort and struggle,” said a statement from the Iranian armed forces released by state media.
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said the assassination shows “the depth of the enemies’ hatred” towards the country.
Israel has long alleged that Fakhrizadeh had run a military nuclear program in the early 2000s, but the country declined to comment following Friday’s news.
The attack is said to have occurred in Absard, a small city east of the capital Tehran, according to the semi-official Fars news agency, believed to be close to the country’s Revolutionary Guard.
He said witnesses heard the sound of an explosion and then machine gun fire and the attack targeted a car that Fakhrizadeh was in.
Images and videos circulating online show a Nissan saloon with bullet holes in the windshield and a pool of blood on the road.
Those injured in the attack, including the nuclear scientist’s bodyguards, were later taken to a local hospital, the agency said.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency previously reported that “the terrorists blew up another car” before firing at a vehicle.
leading Mr. Fakhrizadeh and his bodyguards in an ambush outside the capital.
While no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, Iranian media noted the interest that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously shown in the nuclear scientist.
Netanyahu once said at a press conference, “Remember that name,” in reference to Fakhrizadeh.
State television cited sources who confirmed the death on Friday and said it would offer more information shortly.
Iran’s state television posted on its website a photo of security forces blocking the road where the attack took place.
Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the paramilitary guard, appeared to acknowledge the attack on Mr. Fakhrizadeh.
“Assassinating nuclear scientists is the most violent confrontation preventing us from reaching modern science,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Hossein Dehghan, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader and a presidential candidate in the 2021 Iran elections, issued a warning on Twitter.
“In the final days of their ally’s political life in the game, the Zionists seek to intensify and increase pressure on Iran to wage a full-blown war,” wrote Dehghan, who appears to be referring to President Donald Trump.
He added: “We will descend like lightning on the murderers of this oppressed martyr and make them repent of their actions!”
Fakhrizadeh is believed to have spearheaded what the UN nuclear watchdog and US intelligence services believe was a coordinated nuclear weapons program in Iran, which was halted in 2003.
He is also clearly the only Iranian scientist mentioned in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 2015 “final assessment” of open questions about Iran’s nuclear program and whether it aimed to develop a nuclear bomb.
