International Desk

A top nuclear scientist who “led Iran’s military nuclear program” was assassinated on Friday before it was shut down in the early 2000s, state television said.According to the BBC, the bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a car packed with explosives. Diplomats described the nuclear scientist as the “father of the Iranian bomb.”

The Iranian Armed Forces said in a statement: “Unfortunately, the medical team could not save him. The scientist and his manager, who continued his work and struggle year after year, were martyred a few minutes ago.

Mohsin Fakhrizadeh, a scientist close to the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), was killed in Abzard, a small town just north of Tehran, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Al-Jazeera reports that Israel has not commented on the killing of Mohsin Fakhrizadeh. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once said at a news conference, “Remember his (Mohsin’s) name.”

Israel has been accused of “target killing” Iran’s top nuclear scientists for a decade. The country sees Iran’s acquisition of that capability as a threat, even though it has secretly stockpiled nuclear weapons.

In the two years from 2010 to 2012, four of Iran’s top nuclear scientists were killed. Iran alleges Israel’s secret forces killed them with the help of Westerners.

Mohsin was in charge of Iran’s so-called Amad (Asha) nuclear program. Israel and the West accuse it of being Iran’s military program. Through this the country is building nuclear weapons.

But Tehran has long claimed it was a peaceful nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran’s Amad program ended in the early 2000s.(Source: Online)