Iran’s most senior nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in Damavand, east of Tehran, local Iranian news reported today.
Iran later confirmed the reports: “The nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated today by terrorists”, the Iran’s Defence Ministry wrote in a statement, while not blaming any specific group for the incident.
Fakhrizadeh was a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officer and headed Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.
The semi-official Fars News Agency, affiliated with Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, stated that Fakhrizadeh was injured in the attempted assassination and later died in the hospital.
Pictures from the scene show two vehicles, one blown up and one shot at from the front. Several local reports in Iran indicated that a suicide bomber was involved in the attack, but that has not yet been confirmed.
Hossein Dehghan, a military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Twitter said that Iran would avenge the assassination: “We will strike as thunder at the killers of this oppressed martyr and will make them regret their action”.
Today’s news comes amid fresh concern about the increased amount of enriched uranium that Iran is producing, and its non-compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
