Assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists

15 January 2007

It was initially reported that Ardeshir Hosseinpour died of gas poisoning from a faulty heater, though reports have since been made of foul play. It was reported by Stratfor that he died because of radioactive poisoning.

12 January 2010

At 07:58 am, "a remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle" parked near Masoud Alimohammadi's car exploded while he was leaving his home in the Gheytariyeh neighbourhood of northern Tehran to go to a university. The windows of residences around the scientist's home were shattered by the force of the explosion, and it was reported that two other people were also injured in the blast. The jolt was so strong that the neighbors thought an earthquake had happened, according to the BBC.

The assassination was reportedly done by Majid Jamali Fashi, who had received training by Mossad in Tel Aviv, according to his confessions. His confessions were broadcast by Iranian television and confirmed to be "genuine" by "Western intelligence officials." "I woke up at 4 and made a call, the plan had not changed. I parked the motorbike near the tree," Jamali Fashi said in his confessions. Ali Mohammadi's wife said: "I heard the explosion just when I closed the door."

According to Maziyar Ebrahimi, one of the perpetrators with the pseudonym Amiryal (Persian: "امیریل"‎‎), three teams were involved in the assassination of Alimohammadi. "Some of them were on their cars watching the situation and covering the area and I was in my car in a further place from the incident place waiting to take them away after the explosion was done," said Ebrahimi in his reported interrogations.

"...they told me that he was getting out of the parking lot and I pressed the remote button when I saw him, and moved toward the car waiting for me in the alley. Then we moved away," said Arash Kerhadkish, with pseudonyms Farshid, Behzad and Aran, in his interrogations according to the Mehr News.

29 November 2010

Unidentified assailants riding motorcycles launched bomb attacks, killing Majid Shahriari, a professor at Shahid Beheshti University. The terrorists had attached a bomb to the professor's car and detonated it from a distance.

"I attached the bomb to the right door of front row and moved away quickly," said Arash Kerhadkish convicted for assassinating Shahriari. One of the members of the assassination team riding on a motorcycle fell down due to the strength of the explosion wave. "...the motorcycle fell down and one of the riders was injured. We helped him," said a convicted member of the terror team, Maryam Izadi, in her interrogations. Shariari's wife, Ghasemi, was one of the passengers of the target car and was injured in the incident.

In a separate simultaneous bomb attack, Fereydoon Abbasi, a professor at Shahid Beheshti University where Shahriari also taught, was injured. Abbasi's wife was also hurt in the incident. "...I had a meeting with Dr. Shahriari at the early morning...The bomb was attached to my car at 7:42. We were around university square and I heard the sound of something colliding with my car and looked back and saw a motorbike. I concluded that that thing colliding with car was a bomb. I stopped at once and cautioned my wife to get off..." According to his wife, Abbasi was injured in his face and his hand.

23 July 2011

Rezaeinejad was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen in front of his home, while he was with his wife, Shohreh Pirani, after they had picked up their daughter, Armita, from kindergarten. He was shot five times by unknown attackers. The attack was described as "the first public operation by new Mossad chief Tamir Pardo," according to an "Israeli intelligence source" telling Der Spiegel. His wife was also wounded in the attack. "...I got off quickly and followed the shooter. After meters of running, I understood that they were shooting at me. I fell down and heard the motorcycle going away," said Rezaeinejad's wife, Shohreh Pirani.

11 January 2012

Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was assassinated using "a magnetized explosive" attached to the side of his car on his way to work on the second anniversary of Masoud Ali Mohammadi at 8:30 morning local time in Shahid Golnabi street in Tehran's eastern area of Seyed Khandan. Ahmadi Roshan was "a victim of Israel's Mossad," according to the "Western intelligence sources." "In this location, we reached the car and attached the bomb to the car and the bomb exploded near the white fence...," said Arash Kerhadkish in his reported interrogations according to the Mehr News.

January 2015

In January 2015, Iranian authorities claimed to have thwarted another attempt by Mossad to assassinate an Iranian nuclear scientist.

Responsibility

While the assassinations were taking place, there was some speculation about the identity of those behind the killings. Though Israel's intelligence service Mossad was seen as the most likely candidate, other parties mentioned as possible instigators or participants included Iranian opposition groups such as the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), intelligence operatives from Arab countries opposed to the Iranian regime, or the United States.

The Iranian regime itself blamed both Israel and the United States for the assassinations. Hillary Clinton, at the time the US Secretary of State, categorically denied any U.S. role in the killings, a denial deemed "plausible" by commentators given the reported lack of U.S. intelligence assets within Iran. Israel neither confirmed nor denied a role in the killings.

In early 2011, a young Iranian named Majid Fashi confessed on Iranian state television to the killing of Masoud Alimohammadi, saying that he had trained for the operation at a Mossad facility near Tel Aviv. Fashi was executed in May 2012. The same month, Iranian authorities announced the arrest of another 14 Iranians — eight men and six women — described as an Israeli-trained terror cell responsible for carrying out five of the attacks on Iranian scientists. Iran's IRTV Channel 1 showed a half-hour documentary entitled Terror Club featuring "the televised confessions of the 12 suspects allegedly involved in the killings of Ali-Mohammadi, Shahriari, Rezaeinejad, and Roshan, and the attempted killing of Abbasi." According to Time magazine, Western intelligence officials confirmed the cracking of two Mossad-backed espionage rings by Iranian intelligence. Officials within the Obama administration also reportedly confirmed Israeli involvement. According to Dan Raviv, Mossad officials were "pissed off and shocked" to see their intelligence assets paraded on Iranian television. After the arrests, Iran said it was confident it had arrested all those responsible for the attacks. Time states that Iran attempted in 2012 to retaliate against Israel for the assassinations by launching up to 20 hastily organized attacks on Israeli diplomatic missions around the world, none of which were successful.

While Israel has never publicly confirmed or denied responsibility for the assassinations, Israeli officials have expressed a readiness to employ all necessary means in Israel's defence. Israeli defence minister Moshe Ya'alon stated in an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel, "Ultimately it is very clear, one way or another, Iran's military nuclear programme must be stopped ... We will act in any way and are not willing to tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran. We prefer that this be done by means of sanctions, but in the end, Israel should be able to defend itself." He added that he was not responsible "for the life expectancy of Iranian scientists."

The assassination campaign against Iranian nuclear scientists was reportedly terminated in 2013, following pressure on Israel from the Obama administration to end the attacks while negotiations with Iran aimed at restricting its nuclear program continued. Mossad officials are also said to have concluded that the attacks were "too dangerous" for their valuable intelligence operatives within Iran. Mossad has since reportedly instructed its Iranian spy network to concentrate on finding evidence of Iranian breaches of its agreements to restrict its nuclear activities.

While Israel is thought to have been responsible for the assassination campaign against Iranian nuclear scientists carried out between 2010 and 2012, continuing uncertainty surrounds the 2007 death of Iranian scientist Ardeshir Hosseinpour. Hosseinpour was reported by Iranian authorities to have died from gas inhalation caused by a faulty heater, but a six-day delay in the announcement raised suspicions outside Iran. The American private intelligence firm Stratfor asserted that Hosseinpour had been assassinated by Mossad by means of radiation poisoning, but Iranian officials denied this, declaring their scientists to be "safe." In 2014, Hosseinpour's sister Mahboobeh accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guard of killing her brother for allegedly refusing to work on Iran's nuclear enrichment program. Mahboobeh said the information came from Ardeshir's widow.

Reactions

The United States government condemned the assassinations, though without implicating any party. Some American politicians however, took a different view. Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich endorsed the idea of "taking out [Iranian] scientists," while presidential candidate Rick Santorum described the scientists' killings as "a wonderful thing."

General Yoav Mordechai, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said he had "no idea who targeted the Iranian scientist but I certainly don't shed a tear."

Writing in The Guardian, Mehdi Hasan said of the killings: "These 'men on motorbikes' have been described as 'assassins'. But assassination is just a more polite word for murder. ... how many more of our values will we shred in the name of security? Once we have allowed our governments to order the killing of ... fellow human beings, in secret, without oversight or accountability, what other powers will we dare deny them?"

Historian Michael Burleigh compared the assassinations to the Allied bombing of Nazi V2 rocket sites during World War II, noting that the bombers "were not unduly concerned whether scientists and engineers were killed too, nor foreign slave labourers, provided the V2s ceased raining down on London." Burleigh argues that scientists are not merely abstract researchers but that there are "real world" consequences for their actions, and that he therefore "shall not shed any tears whenever one of these [Iranian] scientists encounters one of the unforgiving men on motorbikes ... Except that if Israel ventures down this road, I cannot think of much of an argument to prevent Iran following them, and then anyone else who decides to follow."

The assassinations are said to have had a "chilling impact" on the Iranian scientific community itself, making it "more difficult for the regime to recruit anyone to national security research efforts," according to an unnamed Iranian official.

Paul Koring notes that, regardless of their effectiveness, the assassinations have "left a real trail of grief," citing the testimony of Shorheh Pirani, widow of Darioush Rezaeinejad, who was gunned down in front of his wife and then five-year-old daughter Armita. A year after the assassination, Koring reported that Armita "still draws pictures of her father. In them, she and her mother always have their mouths open in terrified screams. 'Every day', Mrs Pirani said, 'she makes that painting.'"

Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran, condemned the attacks and said that the attacks were aimed at hindering Iranian scientific movement.