An Iranian nuclear scientist alleged to have been involved with the nation’s military program was assassinated Friday, state television reported.
The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to the country’s Revolutionary Guard, said Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in Absard, a small city just east of the capital, Tehran. It said witnesses heard the sound of an explosion and then machine gun fire. The attack targeted a car that Fakhrizadeh was in, the agency said.
Fakhrizadeh was alleged by Israel to have led the Islamic Republic’s military nuclear program until its disbanding in the early 2000s, according to the Associated Press.
Israel declined to immediately comment on Fakhrizadeh’s death. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once called out Fakhrizadeh in a news conference saying: “Remember that name.” Israel has long been suspected of carrying out a series of targeted killings of Iranian nuclear scientists nearly a decade ago.
State TV Friday cited sources confirming the death. State television on its website later published a photograph of security forces blocking off the road.
Fakhrizadeh led Iran’s so-called “Amad,” or “Hope” program. Israel and the West have alleged it was a military operation looking at the feasibility of building a nuclear weapon in Iran. Tehran long has maintained its nuclear program is peaceful.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says that “Amad” program ended in the early 2000s. IAEA inspectors now monitor Iranian nuclear sites as part of Iran’s now-unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.
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