Originally published January 11, 2012 at 10:05 PM | Page modified January 12, 2012 at 6:25 AM
Another Iran nuclear official dies in covert attack
The assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist on Wednesday was viewed as part of a covert campaign against the nation's nuclear program.
The Washington Post
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TEHRAN, Iran — A scientist linked to Iran's nuclear program was assassinated in his car by a bomb-wielding assailant Wednesday, an attack that experts said points to a further escalation in a covert campaign targeting the country's nuclear officials and institutions.
The precision strike in a northern Tehran neighborhood killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, a chemical engineer employed at Iran's main uranium-enrichment facility. No one claimed responsibility for the slaying.
Iranian officials immediately accused the United States and Israel of orchestrating the attack on Roshan, who was killed along with his bodyguard when an assailant on a motorcycle slapped a magnetic bomb on his Peugeot 405 as he commuted to work, according to Iranian news reports. An 85-year-old passer-by also was wounded.
Roshan was at least the fifth scientist with nuclear connections to be slain since 2007; a sixth scientist, Fereidoun Abbasi, survived a 2010 attack and was put in charge of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.
Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi blamed the Roshan attack on "Zionists" and "those who claim they are against terrorism," the semiofficial Fars News Agency reported.
Roshan was described by Iranian media as deputy director of Iran's largest uranium-enrichment facility, near Natanz, in central Iran.
The Obama administration denied involvement in the attack. "I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said soon after the killing was reported.
Israeli officials declined to address Iranian accusations linking Israeli intelligence operatives to the hit.
But the series of attacks against scientists, all employed in fields or institutions relevant to Iran's nuclear program, highlighted the perception of a sophisticated covert campaign to disrupt Iran's nuclear efforts and intimidate key officials and scientists, security analysts and Iran experts said.
The U.S. and its allies are pressuring Iran to halt uranium enrichment, a key element of the nuclear program that the West suspects is aimed at producing atomic weapons. Uranium enriched to low levels can be used as nuclear fuel but at higher levels, it can be used as material for a nuclear warhead.
Iran denies it is trying to make nuclear weapons, saying its program is geared toward generating electricity and producing medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.
Wednesday's attack bore strong resemblance to two 2010 attacks on nuclear scientists and came the same day as a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the killing of another scientist, Massoud Ali Mohammadi, who also died in an explosion.
The assassinations have been carried out primarily by motorcyclists who attach magnetic bombs to the victim's car, often in heavy traffic, before speeding away.
Iran's ambassador to the U.N., Mohammad Khazaee, sent a letter of protest to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, blaming "certain foreign quarters" for what he called "terrorist acts" aimed at disrupting Iran's "peaceful nuclear program."
The scientists' deaths are part of a pattern of attacks and apparent sabotage. In recent years, Iran has experienced an increase of mysterious explosions at military and industrial sites. A computer virus also damaged Iran's nuclear program.
"The idea clearly is to try to disrupt operations that could lead to a nuclear weapon, and to make their scientists feel less secure and less capable of doing their work," said David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.
Some current and former government officials worried the tactics could backfire, increasing Iran's resolve to defy the West.
Among Western officials and experts, speculation about the possible culprit ranged from Israel's Mossad intelligence agency to Iranian opposition groups to Sunni Arab governments seeking to thwart the ambitions of Iran's Shiite rulers.
In Israel, among those commenting on the attack was Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, Israel's chief military spokesman, who posting on his official Facebook page hours after the assassination: "Don't know who settled the score with the Iranian scientist, but for sure I am not shedding a tear."
In Tehran, members of Parliament reacted to news of the slaying by shouting, "Death to America!" Parliament's national-security and foreign-policy committee called an emergency session to debate a response to the "terrorist act," the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The attack occurred against the backdrop of a worsening international crisis over Iran's nuclear program. The United States and its allies are preparing to implement harsh new economic sanctions against the Islamic republic, prompting a series of threats and provocations by Iranian officials.
In the past two weeks, Iran threatened a U.S. aircraft carrier and vowed to shut down shipping in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Iran also has sentenced to death a former Marine accused of spying for the CIA.
The Obama administration has been pressing allies to curb imports of Iranian petroleum. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed Chinese leaders Wednesday to scale back Iranian oil shipments and support U.S. attempts to block Iranian access to international finance through Chinese banks.
Material from The New York Times and The Associated Press is included in this report.
