Iran official claims top nuclear scientist was assassinated remotely with ‘electronic devices’
An Iranian security official claimed Monday that the country’s top nuclear scientist, who was gunned down last week near Tehran, was assassinated by Israel using “electronic devices.”
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was traveling Friday in a bulletproof car with his wife, along with his protection detail, when witnesses reported hearing machine gun fire, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.
Fakhrizadeh was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Several top Iranian officials, including Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, immediately blamed Israel.
Now, Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, took the accusations even farther during Fakhrizadeh’s funeral.
“Unfortunately, the operation was a very complicated operation and was carried out by using electronic devices,” Shamkhani told state TV Monday. “No individual was present at the site.”
President Hassan Rouhani has vowed retaliation, telling a cabinet meeting Sunday that “the think tanks and the enemies of Iran must know that the Iranian nation and the officials in charge in the country are brave and determined to respond to the murder in time.”
Iran has not yet provided any evidence that Israel was involved in Fakhrizadeh’s death, but has been blaming the country for the assassinations of its top scientists for a decade.
Israeli officials have repeatedly declined to comment.
With News Wire Services
