Mohsen Fakhrizadeh

Iran Foreign Ministry on Friday confirmed that a high-ranking Iranian nuclear physicist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, had been assassinated.

Fakhrizadeh was shot and injured “by terrorists” in his vehicle in Ab-Sard, a suburb in eastern Tehran, and later succumbed to his injuries in what amounted to a “martyr’s death,” the ministry said.

Local authorities had confirmed Fakhrizadeh’s death several hours earlier and also said that several attackers were killed.

Fakhrizade, 63, had been a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and was an expert in missile production.

Fars news agency alleged that this was why Israeli secret services had long sought to eliminate him for many years.

Earlier, Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation (AEOI) Spokesman, Behrus Kamalwandi, caused confusion by denying reports of the death, saying, “our nuclear scientists are all well.”

The confusion arose because Fakhrizadeh had left the AEOI and had been working at the Foreign Ministry.