Global General
Iranian nuclear physicist killed in bombing
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-12 16:22
 |
Large Medium Small |
|
An image grab taken from Iran's Press TV station shows the body of an Iranian university lecturer killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast outside his Tehran residence being carried onto a stretcher at the scene of the explosion. [Xinhua] |
TEHRAN: A remote-controlled bomb killed a Tehran University nuclear scientist on Tuesday, state media reported, in an attack which Iran blamed on US and Israeli agents.
The blast which killed professor Massoud Ali-Mohammadi occurred at a time of heightened tension in the Islamic Republic, seven months after a disputed presidential election plunged the major oil producer into turmoil.
Such bombing attacks are rare in the Iranian capital.
The bomb which killed "Ali-Mohammadi, a nuclear scientist and a committed and revolutionary Tehran University professor, was detonated by a remote control," state broadcaster IRIB said on its website.
Officials blamed Israel and the United States for the bombing. "Signs of the triangle of wickedness by the Zionist regime (Israel), America and their hired agents, are visible in the terrorist act," the foreign ministry said.
"Such terrorist acts and the apparent elimination of the country's nuclear scientists will definitely not obstruct scientific and technological processes," it added.
Western capitals suspect that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at developing bombs. Tehran denies this, saying it only seeks to generate electricity.
Iranian media did not say whether Ali-Mohammadi was involved in the country's nuclear program. An Internet search shows a scientist of that name to have co-written research papers on the nature of "dark energy," a highly theoretical area of cosmology.
Mark Fitzpatrick, chief proliferation analyst at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Israel had in the past killed people working on nuclear programs it perceives as hostile.
But he said it was unlikely Tuesday's killing was "part of an Israeli or American strategy to deprive Iran of the brains of the (nuclear) enrichment process. There are by now too many scientists and engineers with the requisite expertise."
The bombing follows the disappearance in June of Shahram Amiri, a university researcher working for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, during a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Amiri vanished three months before Iran disclosed the existence of its second uranium enrichment site, near the city of Qom. In December Tehran accused Saudi Arabia of handing Amiri over to the United States.
|
 This undated file photo released by the semi-official Iranian Fars News Agency shows nuclear physics professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi, who was killed after a bomb blast in front of his house, in northern Tehran's Qeytariyeh neighborhood, Iran, on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. [Agencies] |
BOOBY-TRAPPED MOTORCYCLE
Fars News Agency quoted a foreign-based group, the Iran Monarchy Association as claiming responsibility for the attack. It did not say how it obtained the statement.
Iranian universities have been the scene of rival protests by opposition campaigners and government supporters since the June poll, which the reformist opposition says was rigged to secure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Student activists form the backbone of the Iranian reform movement.
Iranian state television said Ali-Mohammadi was a "staunch supporter of the Islamic Revolution," suggesting he was a pro-government. Fars also quoted one of his students as saying he had worked with the Revolutionary Guards until 2003. An opposition website, Jaras, said the professor was a supporter of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi.
English-language Press TV said Ali-Mohammadi, a 50-year old lecturer of neutron physics at Tehran University, was killed on Tuesday morning near his home in a northern part of the capital by a booby-trapped motorcycle.
It showed footage of broken glass and other debris at the scene, with what appeared to be the dead man in a body bag taken away on a stretcher. Another media report said windows were shattered within a distance of 50 meters from the blast.
A senior Interior Ministry official, Mehdi Mohammadifar, said the motive for the bombing was under investigation.
Iran has been convulsed by its most serious domestic unrest since the Islamic revolution in 1979, as protests by opposition supporters against the election result have turned violent. Authorities deny opposition allegations that voting was rigged.
Eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and opposition supporters on Ashura, the day of ritual Shi'ite Muslim mourning that fell on December 27.
