Iranian TV blames the US and Israel

Dr. Massoud Ali-Mohammadi killed by a bomb

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Jan 12, 8 am, Tehran time. Bomb was hidden in a motorcycle outside the home. He was killed as he left the house. He was a nuclear physics professor in a Tehran University.

An Iranian nuclear physics scientist has been killed in a remote-controlled bomb attack in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Dr. Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a lecturer at the Tehran University and a staunch supporter of the Islamic Revolution, was killed in booby-trapped motorbike blast on Tuesday.

The explosion took place near the professor’s home in Qeytariyeh neighborhood, in northern Tehran. Iran’s More..police and security bodies are investigating the terrorist case to identify those behind it.

Meanwhile, Tehran’s Prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi confirmed the assassination of the university lecturer on Tuesday morning and said that he taught neutron nuclear physics at the University of Tehran.

“No suspect has been arrested yet,” he told the Iranian Students News Agency. He added that Ali-Mohammadi was killed when a motorbike parked near his car.

Official Iranian sources blamed the west, Israel and the US for the killing.

“One can see in preliminary investigations signs of evilness by the triangle of the Zionist regime, America and their mercenaries in Iran in this terrorist incident,” foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.

Tehran’s chief prosecutor echoed his words, implicating US and Israeli intelligence services.

“Given the fact that Massoud Ali Mohammadi was a nuclear scientist, the CIA and Mossad services and agents most likely have had a hand in it,” Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told the state broadcaster’s news service. AFP

The LA Times reported that links to the opposition Green movement may have been the motive behind the killing.

The state-controlled media called Dr Ali-Mohammadi a staunch supporter of the Islamic Republic, but opposition websites claimed he may have been killed because he was a convert to the so-called Green movement.

An extreme fringe group called the Monarchical Society claimed responsibility on its website, but there was no obvious reason why it would have targeted Dr Ali-Mohammadi and it was impossible to say whether the claim was authentic.

It is conceivable that the regime had Dr Ali-Mohammadi killed, to discredit the opposition, to prevent him leaking nuclear secrets or as a warning to other nuclear scientists.

Dr Ali-Mohammadi taught physics at Tehran University and boasted a long list of publications, which suggests his involvement in the nuclear programme could have been intermittent at best. Tehran University is also regarded as an opposition stronghold and opposition websites said he was a known supporter of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader.

“While reviewing the list of the university professors who supported Mousavi in the elections, it turns out that Prof Massoud Ali-Mohammadi … was amongst them,” said the Kalameh site. Another, Ayande News, said that Dr Ali-Mohammadi had been publicly identified as a Mousavi supporter. LA Times