Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed by a team of Israeli spies who used a 1-ton, remotely controlled machine gun, which was smuggled into the country, according to a new report.
The team of more than 20 Mossad agents, including some Iranian nationals, spent eight months gathering surveillance and planning the shot before the gun pumped 13 bullets into Fakhrizadeh on November 27, while being driven from Tehran to his residence, reports the Jewish Chronicle in London. .
Mossad’s national intelligence agency is Israel’s dreaded CIA counterpart.
The gun was so accurate that neither his 59-year-old wife nor any of his 12 guards were injured in the attack in Absard, according to media reports, which reported that the gun was fired from a distance. a Nissan pickup.
The heavy weapon also included a bomb, which destroyed evidence after the strike, according to the Chronicle, which reported that the assassination was carried out only by Israel, with US involvement.
Israeli analysts have concluded that the death of the so-called “father” of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program has extended the time it would take Tehran to get a bomb from about three and a half months to at least two years, according to the report.
And the Iranian regime has secretly estimated that it will take six years for the replacement of Fakhrizadeh to become fully operational, she added.
Sources told the Chronicle that the mission to destroy the race’s nuclear chief scientist was partially successful because Iran’s security services were too busy pursuing suspects in political dissidents.
A separate media account traced the origins of the attack to January 21, 2018, when it said Mossad agents stole much of Iran’s nuclear secrets using torches to release 50,000 pages of documents and 163 CDs out of 32 safes.
Sources told the Chronicle that Jerusalem is using the information it has gathered to convince the Biden administration, through the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Iran cannot be trusted to abide by the terms of any nuclear deal.
“We will base our arguments this time on pure intelligence, not on politics. It will be cleaner to do this, “an Israeli source told the media, adding that the secrets will not be new to the United States, but that Israeli officials will give their own interpretation.
When Israeli analysts saw the materials recovered by the spies in 2018, they knew that Fakhrizadeh was destined to “leave”, using a Mossad slang.
“It contained original documents ordering the concealment of the nuclear program, many of them in Fakhrizadeh’s handwriting,” a source told Chroncile.
“Analysts realized they were looking at his ink, his fingerprints, the pressure on the paper as he wrote. He was the one who stood behind the deception “, the source continued.
“Fakhrizadeh was the father of everything I found in the archive. Everything was under his command, from science and secret sites to staff and know-how. He had conducted an operation to hide her from the world. From that moment, it was only a matter of time “, added the source.
In March 2020, a team of Israeli spies was sent to Iran, where they met with local agents, according to the report.
“The team has built an extremely detailed plan, minute by minute,” a source told Chronicle. “For eight months, they breathed with the guy, woke up with him, slept with him, traveled with him. He would have smelled them after shaving every morning, if he had used them after shaving ”.
Agents decided to kill Fakhrizadeh on the road east of Tehran from Absard, where he owned a villa.
“They knew his route, speed and daily schedule and they knew exactly what doors they would use to get out,” a media source said.
On November 27, when Fakhrizadeh was traveling with his wife in a black Opel with a convoy carrying 12 bodyguards, a team of Mossad agents watched and waited for the right moment to unleash the deadly volley, according to the report.
When the vehicle passed a designated place, they pressed a remote button that fired 13 rounds that hit Fakhrizadeh, while his wife, who was sitting 10 centimeters away, was unharmed, it is said.
Iranian officials claimed that Fakhrizadeh’s security chief was hit by four bullets as he threw himself at the scientist, but sources close to the operation told the press that no one else was killed or injured in the attack.
“There were several ways to operate, but this was the most accurate,” a source told Chronicle.
“It was the most elegant way to make sure that the target will be reached and only he. The goal was to avoid injuring anyone else, “the source said, adding that claims that the gunmen had moved to remove the scientist were inaccurate.
As the Israeli team fled, the gun exploded.
“Thank God, we took out all our people and they didn’t catch anyone. They didn’t even get close, “said a source familiar with the operation. “Their safety was not bad at all, but Mossad was much better. It was a major thing that happened – a dramatic operation. “