Iran's top nuke scientist assassinated in a gunfight

Tehran: Iran's prominent nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated on Friday in Tehran in his car.

The scientist was 'seriously wounded' when assailants targeted his car before engaging in a gunfight with his security team, Iran's defence Ministry said.

The scientist was travelling in a car near Absard city in Tehran province's eastern Damavand county.

The Ministry further added that Fakhrizadeh who headed the ministry's research and innovation organisation was declared dead after medics failed to revive him.

Fakhrizadeh was described by the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu as the father of Iran's nuclear weapons programme.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said there were 'serious indications of an Israeli role' in the scientist's assassination.

"Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today," Minister Zarif wrote on Twitter.

"This cowardice…with serious indications of Israeli role…shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators," he added.

Minister Zarif also called out the act as a "shameful double standard" and condemned it.

The assassination has roused the suspicion of the government as it has happened two months before Joe Biden takes the office as US president.

Biden has promised a return to diplomacy with Iran after four years under US President Donald Trump, who had withdrawn the Iran Nuclear deal in 2018 and began reimposing other sanctions.

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