Iran’s top nuclear scientist gunned down near Tehran in what official called ‘act of state terror’

A prominent Iranian physicist who allegedly led a secret military attempt to develop Iran’s first nuclear warhead was gunned down Friday on the outskirts of Tehran, Iranian state media reported.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in the apparent ambush as he drove with bodyguards on a country road in Absard, just east of Tehran, local media said, citing unidentified sources.

In this March 31, 2020, file photo, Iran's national flag waves as Milad telecommunications tower and buildings are seen in Tehran. (Vahid Salemi/)

The semiofficial Fars news agency, considered close to the Islamic Nation’s Revolutionary Guard, said witnesses reported hearing an explosion of machine gun fire as the brazen attack unfolded.

Images from the scene shared online showed a Nissan sedan with bullet holes in the windshield and blood on the road.

The gravely wounded scientist, thought to be around 60 years old, was rushed to a hospital where he died, local media said.

Western intelligence officials previously said the professor at Imam Hossein University served as a top scientist in the country’s controversial nuclear program for decades.

Iran’s foreign minister wrote on Twitter that the fatal shooting bore the hallmarks of Israeli involvement, though he did not provide any evidence.

“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today,” Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.

“This cowardice — with serious indications of Israeli role — shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators,” he said.

Zarif called on the international community to “condemn this act of state terror.”

Israel, a regional foe with an interest in blocking Iran’s nuclear ambitions, has a policy of not commenting on such incidents.

Iran previously blamed Israel for a string of assassinations involving its top scientists that started in 2010.

Fakhrizadeh was sometimes referred to as Iran’s answer to Robert Oppenheimer, the American physicist known as the father of the atomic bomb.

His killing put the world on edge Friday, coming in the final weeks of President Trump’s administration and less than a year after a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani.

Trump is considered more hawkish than President-elect Joe Biden, leading to speculation the alleged hit on Fakhrizadeh faced pressure to move ahead before the upcoming transition of power.

Biden has been clear he favors a return to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal designed to ensure Iran doesn’t obtain enough highly enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.

Trump withdrew from the accord in 2018.

With News Wire Services