nuclear-news

Assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist

“A physics professor and nuclear scientist was assassinated a few hours ago in front of his house in Tehran,” Mehr news agency reported at 1430 GMT.

The ISNA news agency identified the victim as Dariush Rezaei, 35, an expert with links to the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI). Fars news agency said he was also associated with the defence ministry.

Mehr reported that Rezaie’s wife was also wounded in the attack and rushed to hospital.

Top provincial security official Safar Ali Baratlou told the ILNA news agency that no one had yet been arrested in connection with the shooting.

It said Rezaei studied nuclear engineering in Tehran’s Amir Kabir University, had a degree in neutron physics and undertook research for the AEOI.

Several Iranian nuclear scientists have disappeared in recent years or been targeted in attacks the Islamic republic has blamed on the United States and Israel, which suspect Tehran’s atomic programme masks a nuclear weapons drive.

Last November 29, Majid Shahriari was killed in the capital when men on motorcycles attached a bomb to his car, and current nuclear chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davani survived a similar assassination attempt on the same day.

Abbasi Davani had been targeted by UN Security Council sanctions under Resolution 1747 adopted in March 2007. He was identified as a senior defence ministry and armed forces logistics scientist.

Another top Iranian nuclear scientist, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, was killed in a bomb blast on January 12, 2010, which Tehran blamed on “mercenaries” in the pay of the US and Israeli intelligence services.

Following the attacks, Tehran vowed to boost security for its nuclear scientists……

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ikc66MaRBJc46jBogHOCdmj6Q7oQ?docId=CNG.a1648361eb4770cb518e681d9dc71f55.111

July 24, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, safety