ABSARD, Iran (AP) — State television says an Iranian scientist was killed in a targeted attack killed in Absard, a small city just east of the capital, Tehran.
State TV says the attack on the scientist, named Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, saw gunmen use explosives and machine gun fire. He was attacked by "armed terrorist elements," according to state TV, and died at a local hospital after first responders couldn't revive him.
Israel has alleged the man led the Islamic Republic’s military nuclear program until its disbanding in the early 2000s.
Iran’s foreign minister is alleging the killing of Fakhrizadeh has “serious indications” of an Israeli role. Mohammad Javad Zarif made the statement Friday on Twitter.
“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice—with serious indications of Israeli role—shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators,” Zarif wrote. "Iran calls on int'l community—and especially EU—to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror."
Israel declined to immediately comment on the killing of Fakhrizadeh, who Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once called out in a news conference saying: “Remember that name.”
Israel has long been suspected of carrying out a series of targeted killings of Iranian nuclear scientists nearly a decade ago.