An Iranian nuclear scientist long suspected by the West of orchestrating a secret atomic weapons program was assassinated near Tehran on Friday, Iranian state media reported.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh died of his injuries in hospital after gun assassins shot at his car, Iranian media reported.
Fakhrizadeh has long been described by Western, Israeli and Iranian exiles of Iranian religious leaders as the head of a secret atomic bomb program interrupted in 2003. Iran has long denied seeking to militarize nuclear power.
“Unfortunately, the medical team failed to revive (Fakhrizadeh), and a few minutes ago this director and scientist achieved martyrdom status after years of effort and struggle,” the forces said. Iranian armies in a statement released by state media. .
The semi-official Tasnim news agency said earlier that “terrorists blew up another car” before shooting at a vehicle carrying Fakhrizadeh and his bodyguards in an ambush outside the capital.
Fakhrizadeh is believed to have led what the UN nuclear watchdog and US intelligence believe was a coordinated nuclear weapons program in Iran, set aside in 2003.
He has the rare distinction of being the only Iranian scientist named in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 2015 “final assessment” of open questions about Iran’s nuclear program and whether he was aiming to develop a nuclear bomb .