Between 2010 and 2012, four Iranian nuclear scientists (Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan) were killed in foreign-linked assassinations; another, Fereydoon Abbasi, was wounded in an attempted murder. Shahriari and Ahmadi Roshan were killed by magnetic bombs attached to the side of their cars, while Ali-Mohammadi was killed by a motorcycle-attached bomb and Rezaeinejad was shot dead. According to the private American intelligence agency Stratfor, a fifth Iranian scientist, Ardeshir Hosseinpour, was poisoned by Mossad in 2007.
The Iranian government accused Israel of complicity in the killings in order to disrupt Iran's nuclear program. In 2011 and 2012, Iranian authorities arrested a number of Iranians alleged to have carried out the assassination campaign on behalf of Mossad (the Israeli intelligence service). Western intelligence services and U.S. officials reportedly confirmed the Israeli connection. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement, but Israeli defense minister Moshe Ya'alon said: "We will act in any way and are not willing to tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran. We prefer that this be done by means of sanctions, but in the end, Israel should be able to defend itself."
The assassination campaign was reportedly terminated in 2013 following diplomatic pressure from the United States, which was attempting to negotiate restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities. According to NBC, two US senior officials confirmed that the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) was "financed, trained, and armed by Israel" in killing Iranian nuclear scientists, although a Senior State Department Official later denied saying the MEK was involved in the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists.
Incidents
Ardeshir Hosseinpour
On 15 January 2007, Ardeshir Hosseinpour, a professor at Shiraz University, was initially reported to have died of "suffocated by fumes from a faulty gas fire in sleep". Later reports indicated foul play. American, private, intelligence company Stratfor released a report on 2 February 2007 in which the claim was made, based on "sources very close to Israeli intelligence," that the victim was "in fact a long-time Mossad target."
In 2014, Ardeshir's sister, Mahboobeh Hosseinpour, interviewed from Turkey in a conversation arranged by "The New Iran" opposition group, claimed that her brother was murdered by Iran's Revolutionary Guards rather than by Israel, for refusing to participate in "Iran's nuclear enrichment program whose use was for atomic [weapons] purposes." According to Stratfor, Hosseinpour died of radiation poisoning.
Masoud Ali-Mohammadi
On 12 January 2010, Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, a professor of physics at the University of Tehran, was killed by a remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle parked near his car, which exploded on the street outside his home in the Gheytariyeh neighbourhood of northern Tehran as he left for work. Two other people were wounded in the blast, which shattered windows in a nearby four-story building, damaged window frames and blew a garage door out of its frame. The BBC reported that neighbors assumed the jolt was caused by an earthquake. Iran blamed Israel and the U.S for the attack.
In January 2011, Iran announced that it had arrested 10 Iranian citizens who had worked with Mossad to carry out the assassination. State television broadcast a confession by Majid Jamali Fashi, who said he acted on the instructions of Mossad and had been trained in Tel Aviv: "I woke up at 4 and made a call, the plan had not changed. I parked the motorbike near the tree," Fashi said in his confession. Ali-Mohammadi's wife said, "I heard the explosion just when I closed the door." later confirmed genuine by Western intelligence officials, Fashi was executed by Iran in May 2012.
According to Maziyar Ebrahimi, an alleged perpetrator code-named Amiryal (), three teams were involved in the Ali-Mohammadi assassination. "Some of them were on their cars watching the situation and covering the area and I was in my car in a further place from the incident place waiting to take them away after the explosion was done," Ebrahimi reportedly said under interrogation. Maziyar Ebrahimi was later exonerated and explained eight years later how he was proved to be innocent in an interview. "They told me that he was getting out of the parking lot and I pressed the remote button when I saw him, and moved toward the car waiting for me in the alley. Then we moved away," said Arash Kerhadkish (code-named Farshid, Behzad, and Aran) under interrogation, as reported by the Mehr News Agency.