Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's Top Nuclear Scientist, Assassinated Near Tehran

Iran's leading nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is killed in an elaborate ambush near Tehran, with Iran blaming Israel and the US for what it calls state terrorism.

On November 27, 2020, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh — the father of Iran's nuclear weapons program and the scientist the IAEA had specifically named as central to Iran's covert nuclear activities — was killed in a sophisticated ambush in Absard, near Tehran. A remote-controlled machine gun, reportedly smuggled in pieces and assembled, opened fire on his car. Iran immediately blamed Israel — possibly with US assistance — calling the killing state terrorism. Fakhrizadeh had been sanctioned by the UN Security Council and was considered so central to Iran's nuclear program that the IAEA had for years sought to interview him. His assassination set back Iran's nuclear expertise and inflamed calls in Tehran's parliament to escalate uranium enrichment.