{"id":1326,"date":"2020-12-07T19:05:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T19:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=134783"},"modified":"2020-12-07T19:05:11","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T19:05:11","slug":"remote-control-killing-iran-says-top-nuclear-scientist-assassinated-by-gun-guided-via-satellite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/07\/remote-control-killing-iran-says-top-nuclear-scientist-assassinated-by-gun-guided-via-satellite\/","title":{"rendered":"Remote-Control Killing: Iran Says Top Nuclear Scientist Assassinated By Gun Guided Via Satellite"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A machine gun equipped with a &#8220;satellite-controlled smart system&#8221; was used to kill Iran&#8217;s top nuclear scientist, a senior official with the country&#8217;s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has said.<\/p>\n<p>Officials have blamed Israel for the brazen, daytime attack on November 27 in Absard, some 60 kilometers from the capital, Tehran, though it didn&#8217;t offer any evidence for the claim.<\/p>\n<p>Israel, which has been blamed for the assassination of at least four other Iranian nuclear scientists, has not commented on the attack.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wsw__embed\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rferl.org\/a\/growing-list-of-iran-scientists-in-targeted-killings\/30976813.html\" title=\"The Black List: Assassinated Iranian Scientists \" class=\"img-wrap\"><span class=\"thumb thumb16_9\"><\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/gdb.rferl.org\/5da92dc4-256a-4ded-9c00-8535fd932c27_cx0_cy1_cw98_w250_r1_s.jpg\" alt=\"The Black List: Assassinated Iranian Scientists \" \/><\/p>\n<p> <img data-src=\"https:\/\/gdb.rferl.org\/5da92dc4-256a-4ded-9c00-8535fd932c27_cx0_cy1_cw98_w250_r1_s.jpg\" alt=\"The Black List: Assassinated Iranian Scientists \" \/><\/span><\/a> <span class=\"label label--media label--inverted m-l-sm\">Photo Gallery:<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"title title--media title--inverted m-l-sm\">The Black List: Assassinated Iranian Scientists<\/h4>\n<div class=\"c-lightbox__intro-source\">\n<div class=\"c-lightbox__intro-content\">\n<p>The November 27 killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is the latest in a string of killings of men allegedly linked to Iran\u2019s nuclear program. Fakhrizadeh is at least the fifth Iranian scientist to have been assassinated or die in mysterious circumstances since 2007.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"share js-share--expandable c-lightbox__sharing\" data-counter-separator=\".\" data-counter-url=\"\/a\/growing-list-of-iran-scientists-in-targeted-killings\/30976813.html\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Speaking in Tehran on December 6, IRGC Deputy Commander Ali Fadavi said the smart system had &#8220;zoomed in&#8221; on Fakhrizadeh&#8217;s face using &#8220;artificial intelligence&#8221; while adding that Fakhrizadeh&#8217;s wife &#8212; who was only &#8220;25 centimeters away&#8221; &#8212; was unharmed.<\/p>\n<p>Fadavi confirmed earlier reports that there were no assassins on the ground to carry out the killing.<\/p>\n<p>He said the special weapon fired a total of 13 times, hitting Fakhrizadeh four or five times, including a shot to his spinal cord that caused severe bleeding and led to his death as he was being transported via helicopter to a Tehran hospital.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wsw__embed\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n<div class=\"thumb\"><img alt=\"IRGC Deputy Commander Ali Fadavi (file photo)\" src=\"https:\/\/gdb.rferl.org\/445490DA-3565-44DB-8484-AF76983C4C91_w250_r0_s.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"caption\">IRGC Deputy Commander Ali Fadavi (file photo)<\/span><\/div>\n<p>Four bullets also hit the chief of Fakhrizadeh&#8217;s security detail, who had attempted to protect him by &#8220;throwing himself&#8221; on the nuclear scientist, Fadavi said. That confirmed media reports that one of Fakhrizadeh&#8217;s bodyguards had been injured in the attack.<\/p>\n<p>He also said that 11 bodyguards were accompanying Fakhrizadeh and that the explosion of a truck during the attack targeted the security team.<\/p>\n<p>Fadavi&#8217;s account is the latest version of the assassination that has resulted in serious criticism of Iran&#8217;s security apparatus.<\/p>\n<p>Initial reports immediately after the killing suggested that the scientist was targeted in a suicide attack, which included several gunmen. But media later only reported that the assault included gunfire and a truck explosion.<\/p>\n<p>A filmmaker close to the hard-line faction of Iran&#8217;s establishment, which also includes the IRGC and other groups, said hours after the attack that 12 gunmen, including two snipers and a powerful car bomb, were involved in the ambush of Fakhrizadeh&#8217;s four-vehicle convoy.<\/p>\n<p>Later, the IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency reported that there were no hitmen on the ground and that the attack was carried out by a remote-controlled machine gun mounted on a pickup truck that later exploded.<\/p>\n<p>Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani had also said there were no attackers on the ground while blaming Israel and suggesting the exiled Iranian opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organzation had played a role.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with state-controlled television, one of Fakhrizadeh&#8217;s sons, Hamed Fakhrizadeh, said his father had been warned by his security team on the day he was assassinated not to travel.<\/p>\n<p>But the top scientist, who kept a low-profile, had said that, due to a class he was teaching as well as an &#8220;important meeting,&#8221; he needed to return to Tehran.<\/p>\n<p><big><strong>&#8216;Full-Blown War Zone&#8217;<\/strong><\/big><\/p>\n<p>Hamed Fakhrizadeh described the scene of the assassination, which he came to shortly after the attack, as a &#8220;full-blown war zone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His brother, Mehdi Fakhirzadeh, said in the same interview that his father was shot at a close range of four or five meters and that their mother, who he said had sat on the ground next to Fakhrizadeh, was unhurt.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She said &#8216;I don&#8217;t understand how the bullets didn&#8217;t hit me. I went there so that the bullets would not hit [Fakhrizadeh],'&#8221; he quoted his mother as having said.<\/p>\n<p>The comments could either confirm Fadavi&#8217;s account regarding a &#8220;satellite-controlled&#8221; weapon equipped with facial-recognition technology or suggest that snipers shot and killed the nuclear scientist.<\/p>\n<p>Fakhrizadeh&#8217;s assassination and the various accounts of how it was carried out have raised many questions, including the possible presence of &#8220;infiltrators&#8221; within Iran&#8217;s security apparatus who would have precise information about the movement of the country&#8217;s leading nuclear scientist, who was <strong><a class=\"wsw__a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rferl.org\/a\/iran-security-apparatus-under-fire-after-top-nuclear-scientist-assassinated\/30977004.html\">mentioned by name<\/a><\/strong> in a 2018 presentation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n<p>If the official account regarding the remote-controlled killing is true, it is clear that the attack was well-planned and that someone had installed the alleged &#8220;remote-controlled&#8221; gun and a bomb on the truck before driving it to the site of the assassination. Some reports said the owner of the Nissan pickup truck had left Iran shortly before the attack.<\/p>\n<p>One major question is how the special equipment needed for the sophisticated attack was smuggled into Iran.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wsw__embed\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n<div class=\"thumb\"><img alt=\"Mohsen Fakhrizadeh\" src=\"https:\/\/gdb.rferl.org\/35972d1a-9ba4-446d-963e-17729a735e5f_w250_r0_s.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"caption\">Mohsen Fakhrizadeh<\/span><\/div>\n<p>It is also not clear why Fakhrizadeh &#8212; who knew that he was a wanted man due to his role in the country&#8217;s nuclear program and who, according to officials, had survived previous failed assassination attempts &#8212; had decided to get out of his vehicle during the attack. It&#8217;s especially strange because several media accounts say his vehicle was bullet-proof.<\/p>\n<p>Fakhrizadeh&#8217;s sons confirmed earlier reports that their father left his vehicle because he thought it had broken down after hearing the bullets hitting the car.<\/p>\n<p>But it is unclear why he didn&#8217;t ask someone on his security team to find out what was happening instead of putting himself at risk by leaving the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>Officials have vowed to avenge Fakhrizadevh&#8217;s killing, which came nearly a year after the U.S. assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, who led the IRGC Quds Force in charge of the group&#8217;s regional activities. Soleimani was killed in a drone attack near Baghdad in January in an attack that the U.S. claimed responsibility for.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/2020\/12\/07\/remote-control-killing-iran-says-top-nuclear-scientist-assassinated-by-gun-guided-via-satellite\/\">Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A machine gun equipped with a \u201csatellite-controlled smart system\u201d was used to kill Iran\u2019s top nuclear scientist, a senior official with the country\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,25,4,23,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1327,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions\/1327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}