Iranian nuclear scientist reportedly killed by remote-controlled machine gun

Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated using a remote-controlled machine gun operating from a car — which then exploded, local media claims.

The semi-official Fars news agency gave the wild description of Friday’s attack on Fakhrizadeh, which it says lasted three minutes.

The scientist — who founded Iran’s military nuclear program in the 2000s — was traveling with his wife in a bulletproof car with three security vehicles when he heard the sound of gunfire and got out to see what was going on, the agency reported on Sunday.

That’s when the remote-controlled weapon started blasting him from a Nissan parked around 164 yards away, before the car itself blew up.

Fakhrizadeh was hit three times, including by a bullet that severed his spine, the agency said.

State TV’s Arabic-language channel, Al-Alam, also claimed that the weapons used in the attack, allegedly by Israel, were “controlled by satellite.”

Satellite-controlled weapons, including machine guns, have been used in the Middle East, by both professional armies and militants, who have been known to place them in vehicles or at stationary posts, according to Forbes.

The accounts contradict earlier Iranian reports that the Nissan exploded first before Fakhrizadeh was ambushed by a hit squad of at least 12 gunmen, including some snipers.

However, a top Iranian security official made similar allegations at Fakhrizadeh’s funeral on Monday.

“Unfortunately, the operation was a very complicated operation and was carried out by using electronic devices,” said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

“No individual was present at the site.”

He also blamed Iranian exile group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) for “having a role in this,” without elaborating.

A spokesman for MEK, which has been suspected of assisting Israeli operations in Iran in the past, dismissed Shamkhani’s remarks as “rage, rancor and lies” sparked by the group’s earlier exposes over Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel — long suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the last 10 years — has declined to comment on the attack on Fakhrizadeh, who headed Iran’s so-called AMAD program, which Israel and the West have claimed was a military operation looking at the feasibility of building a nuclear weapon.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Press TV reported Monday that the weapon used in the assassination Friday was made in Israel.

“The weapons collected from the site of the terrorist act (where Fakhrizadeh was assassinated) bear the logo and specifications of the Israeli military industry,” an unnamed source told the English-language news outlet.

Israeli officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters.

Israeli intelligence minister Eli Cohen told radio station 103 FM on Monday, before the Press TV report, that he did not know who was responsible for the killing.

When asked about potential Iranian retaliation, Cohen told the radio station: “We have regional intelligence supremacy, and on this matter we are prepared, we are increasing vigilance, in the places where that is required.”

Jerusalem insists that Iran still maintains the ambition of developing nukes, pointing to Tehran’s ballistic missile program and research into other technologies.

Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful.

Defense Minister Gen. Amir Hatami, who kissed Fakhrizadeh’s casket and put his forehead against it, said his killing would make Iranians “more united, more determined.”

“For the continuation of your path, we will continue with more speed and more power,” Hatami said.

With Post wires