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Fakhrizadeh has long been described by Western, Israeli and Iranian exile foes of Iranโs clerical rulers as a leader of a covert atomic bomb programme halted in 2003. Iran has long denied seeking to weaponise nuclear energy.
An Iranian nuclear scientist long suspected by the West of masterminding a secret atomic weapons programme was assassinated near Tehran on Friday, Iranian state media reported.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh died of injuries in hospital after armed assassins fired on his car, Iranian media reported.
Fakhrizadeh has long been described by Western, Israeli and Iranian exile foes of Iranโs clerical rulers as a leader of a covert atomic bomb programme halted in 2003. Iran has long denied seeking to weaponise nuclear energy.
โUnfortunately, the medical team did not succeed in reviving (Fakhrizadeh), and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist achieved the high status of martyrdom after years of effort and struggle,โ Iranโs armed forces said in a statement carried by state media.
The semi-official news agency Tasnim said earlier that โterrorists blew up another carโ before firing on a vehicle carrying Fakhrizadeh and his bodyguards in an ambush outside the capital.
Fakhrizadeh is thought to have headed what the U.N. nuclear watchdog and U.S. intelligence services believe was a coordinated nuclear weapons programme in Iran, shelved in 2003.
He has the rare distinction of being the only Iranian scientist named in the International Atomic Energy Agencyโs 2015 โfinal assessmentโ of open questions about Iranโs nuclear programme and whether it was aimed at developing a nuclear bomb.
