What We Know About the Assassination ofIran’s Top Nuclear Scientist

Iran’s top nuclear scientist and the father of its nuclear weapons program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated in a daytime ambush on Friday, according to Iranian State Media. Fakhrizadeh was apparently fatally wounded after a car he was traveling in was attacked by armed gunmen and an apparent truck bomb as it drove through a town west of Tehran. Iranian officials have blamed Israel for the attack, with foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif calling it an act of state-sponsored terrorism and the country’s top military commander vowing “harsh retaliation” against anyone involved. Fakhrizadeh led Iran’s efforts to develop an atomic warhead before the country’s nuclear weapons program was officially halted in 2003, and intelligence officials in Israel and the U.S. have long alleged that the program has continued in secret — with Fakhrizadeh, who was also a senior officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, still in charge. (Iran has always denied that it has any intention of developing a nuclear weapon.) The New York Times reports that “one American official — along with two other intelligence officials — said that Israel was behind the attack on the scientist.” The Times also points out that Fakhrizadeh “had long been the No. 1 target of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service.” Israel has declined to comment on the attack, but Mossad is believed to have carried out numerous covert assassination and sabotage operations targeting nuclear scientists and facilities inside Iran over the past decade — though Israel has never directly admitted responsibility for those efforts. A few weeks ago, the Times reported that in August, Israel had killed, at the bequest of the U.S., a top Al Qaeda leader who had been hiding in Iran. Was the U.S. involved? It is not clear whether or not the U.S. had any involvement in, or advance knowledge of the strike on Fakhrizadeh. White House, Pentagon, and CIA officials all declined to comment about the attack on Friday, while President Trump retweeted an Israeli journalist calling Fakhrizadeh’s death “a major psychological and professional blow for Iran.” Earlier this month, Trump reportedly asked his senior advisers if there were any military options for striking Iran’s main nuclear site, but was apparently dissuaded after he was warned that such a strike could lead to broader conflict. At the time, however, Trump administration officials told the Times that the outgoing president might still be considering other options for striking Iranian assets. The Wall Street Journal adds that: The Times reports that while U.S. officials would not comment on Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, “some American officials argued that the death of Mr. Fakhrizadeh, the latest in a string of such mysterious killings of Iran’s top nuclear scientists, would send a chilling message to the country’s other top scientists working on that program: If we can get him, we can get you, too.” In January, President Trump ordered a brazen,