Senior Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, a high-profile figure in the country’s nuclear energy program, has been assassinated in Damavand, east of Tehran.
According to several media reports, the scientist was killed on Friday, Nov. 27, 2020, in the Absard region of Davamand.
He was reportedly accompanied by his bodyguard when they were attacked by a “suicide” attacker at the entrance of Absard town.
Fakhrizadeh has been killed by shooting, but before the shootout, his car has been stopped with an explosion at Mostafa Khomeini Blvd. Several others are also reportedly killed in the incident, but haven’t been identified yet.
While Iran’s state TV also confirmed the assassination, Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, has denied the reports, saying all nuclear scientists are safe.
Tasnim quotes an informed source as saying that Fakhrizadeh is not dead yet and is under treatment in operation room. Efforts are underway to treat him and one of his companions
A Professor of physics at the Imam Hussein University, he was a senior scientist at the Iranian Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the assassination, but the Israeli regime has a dark history of hiring hit men to assassinate nuclear scientists and intellectuals in Iran.
Four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated by the Israeli regime between 2010 and 2012. According to Western intelligence agencies, the acts of terror were carried out by Israeli agents, an accusation Israeli officials never denied.