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Earlier in 2010, Prof. Massoud Ali Mohammadi was killed in Tehran by a bomb attached to his car.
According to Iran, the attacks show that those responsible - Iran blames Israel and the Mossad - are determined to strike at scientists involved in Iran's nuclear program.
All of the targeted Iranian nuclear scientists taught and conducted research at university physics departments. But according to Western officials, they were also working secretly for Iran's military nuclear program.
The attacks seem to be focused on taking out key people involved in the last and most important step on the road to nuclear weapons - the group known as the weapons group.
All of the targeted Iranian nuclear scientists taught and conducted research at university physics departments. But according to Western officials, they were also working secretly for Iran's military nuclear program.
Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by EyeHeartBigfoot
I think it was in the Washington Post it was claimed the wrong guy was assassinated; they hit a student and not a Nuclear physicist.
Iranian authorities now say the victim of a deadly shooting in Tehran was a university student -- not a physicist involved in Iran's nuclear program, as initially reported by state-run media.
English-language Iranian Press TV said a mix-up over the victim's name apparently led to the confusion.
Initial reports said gunmen firing from motorcycles had killed Darioush Rezaei, 35, a physics professor whose reported area of expertise was neutron transport. Several news reports linked him to Iran’s nuclear program.
But later reports said investigators had determined that the slain man was an electronics student who shares a similar name.
The Iranian regime has previously blamed the United States and Israel for attacks targeting Iranian scientists.
The U.S. and Israel and some of their allies accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability under the cover of its civilian atomic energy program. Iran denies the allegation.
Darioush Rezaie, 35, a university lecturer, was shot dead by gunmen in eastern Tehran Saturday. Some media reports said Rezaie was a nuclear scientist but Deputy Interior Minister Safarali Baratlou said this was not true.
Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani in a speech broadcast live on state TV blamed the United States and Israel for the killing.
"The terrorist action by American and the Zionist regime (Israel) yesterday ... is another example of the level of their animosity (against Iran)," he said.
Iranian media said security officials were investigating the killing.
Several nuclear scientists have been assassinated in Iran in the last few years.
One scientist was killed and another wounded in Tehran in November, which Iranian officials blamed Israel and the United States for. Washington dismissed that at the time.
It has not been officially confirmed whether Rezaie was involved in Iran's nuclear program, as reported by some media.
Lawmaker Zohreh Elahian said Rezaie had no links to Iran's nuclear program, which the United States and its allies say is a cover to build bombs.
"Rezaie was an elite Iranian physicist ... he was murdered by our country's enemies. But ... he didn't have any connection to Iran's nuclear activities," said Elahian, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by EyeHeartBigfoot
I think it was in the Washington Post it was claimed the wrong guy was assassinated; they hit a student and not a Nuclear physicist.
by Peter Kenyon
July 24, 2011
Iran says the killing of a young scientist Saturday was a "U.S.-Zionist terrorist act."
Darioush Rezai-Nejad, 35, was gunned down in Tehran on Saturday by assailants who also wounded his wife, according to state-run Iranian media.
A number of Iranian nuclear scientists have been attacked in recent years, but officials said in this case there may have been a mistake. Official media said Rezai-Nejad, a promising graduate student, may have been killed because his name is similar to another scientist, who does work on Iran's nuclear program.
Despite assassinations, cyberattacks and stringent sanctions, Iran continues to press ahead with its nuclear activity, which it says is peaceful. Tehran recently announced the installation of new, second-generation centrifuges that could accelerate the country's efforts to enrich uranium.
Ex-IAEA official says physics professor Darioush Rezaei, who was assassinated in Tehran, was indeed an atom scientist
Associated Press Published:
07.28.11, 20:32 / Israel News
A man shot dead on a Tehran street by motorcycle-riding gunmen last weekend was a scientist involved in suspected Iranian attempts to make nuclear weapons and not a student as officially claimed, a foreign government official and a former UN nuclear inspector said Thursday.
The man was shot Saturday by a pair of gunmen firing from motorcycles in an attack similar to other recent assassinations of nuclear scientists that Iran blames on the United States and Israel.
Iran's State-run media initially identified him as Darioush Rezaei, a physics professor and expert in neutron transport, but backtracked within hours, with officials subsequently naming him as Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electronics student.
An official, from a member nation of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, verified that the victim was named Rezaeinejad, but said he participated in developing high-voltage switches, a key component in setting off the explosions needed to trigger a nuclear warhead. An abstract seen by the AP and co-authored by Rezaeinejad appears to back that claim.
Iran denies it seeks nuclear weapons and insists its activities are geared only to generate fuel for a future reactor network and other peaceful purposes. But it refuses to cease activities that could be used to make such weapons, despite UN sanctions, and is stonewalling International Atomic Energy Agency attempts to probe intelligence-based allegations that it worked on components of such arms.
Because of UN embargoes prohibiting the sale to Iran of sensitive nuclear technologies, it has tried to secure components clandestinely, including the high-voltage switches.
The official described Rezaeinejad as a physicist who had worked in the past for the Iranian defense ministry on projects linked to nuclear weapons development, including the switches. He asked for anonymity because his information was privileged.
Rezaeinejad succeeded on his project, according to an abstract of an article he co-authored three years ago and presented to the 16th Conference of Iranian Power Engineering. If that is so, Iran would be a step closer to the technology needed to set off a nuclear explosion.
AP has learned that the article, entitled "Designing, Manufacturing and Testing a Closing Switch" provides "details about the designing, simulating, building and testing" of such hardware.
"The said switch has been manufactured and ... the results of tests show that the switch worked properly and met expectations," said the abstract.
Such switches have nonmilitary uses as well in medical and scientific applications. But a former UN nuclear inspector – who also asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information – said the title of the document would make "an explosive application" likely, along with the fact that the co-author, Mojtaba Dadashnejad, had published several separate articles about explosives testing.