Iranian scientist killed, local media report - The Washington Post

 

TEHRAN — Unknown assailants on a motorcycle shot and killed a physicist connected to the country’s nuclear program, Iranian media reported Saturday.

Several local Web sites identified the man as Darius Rezaei. If confirmed, Rezaei would be the third person involved in Iran’s nuclear program who has been killed in recent years.

In November, two scientists were targeted in a similar attack, with men on motorcycles attaching explosives to their cars during Tehran’s morning rush hour. One of the scientists, Majid Shahriari, died, while the other, Fereydoun Abbasi, survived the attack and now heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

At the time, Iranian authorities blamed agents of Israel and the United States for those killings, accusing them of wanting to cause chaos in the country. But leading figures in Iran’s opposition accused the government of plotting the attacks in order to spread fear in the capital, where many oppose the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In January 2010, another physicist, Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, was killed when explosives attached to a motorcycle detonated in front of his house.

Saturday’s attack comes just weeks after the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, warned that a fresh round of assassinations was underway. His men are charged with protecting Iran’s scientists.

He urged the nation to be vigilant, saying the corps had “evidence” that scientists were being targeted.