What could be the potential weapons Used in the Assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh?
By: Anush Pv
Tags: Iran, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, USA, Israel, Potential

The alleged architect of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was buried with full military honors. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blamed Israel for the killing and vowed retribution “in due time.” Initial reports indicated that a bomb blew up in front of his car forcing it to stop and then several armed personnel sprayed bullets to kill him.

But later this narrative was changed. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, told state TV, “Unfortunately, the operation was a very complicated operation and was carried out by using electronic devices. No individual was present at the site.”

State TV’s English-language broadcaster Press TV reported earlier Monday that a weapon recovered from the scene of the attack bore “the logo and specifications of the Israeli military industry.” State TV’s Arabic-language channel, Al-Alam, claimed the weapons used were “controlled by satellite,” a claim also made by the semi-official Fars news agency.

We are going to analyze what weapon may have been used to take out Iran’s nuclear weapons mastermind Mohsen Fakhrizadeh?

Iran has approximately 1,000 strategic missiles that are controlled by the Revolutionary Guard. Some of these missiles like the Shahab-3 variant known as Sajjil-2 have a reported range of up to 2,400 km. While the U.S mainland is outside the strike envelope, Israel is within the range. If these missiles could be armed with a nuclear warhead, they pose a significant threat.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was considered to be Iran’s top nuclear scientist and was thought to be heading a clandestine program looking at the feasibility of building a nuclear weapon. A report says Israel’s ex-PM Olmert played a top-secret tape of Fakhrizadeh for President Bush in a 2008 meeting which recorded the nuclear scientist speaking about his efforts to produce “five warheads. Iranian officials claim that Fakhrizadeh was on Israel’s crosshair for a long time. Several Iranian scientists in the last several years have been killed by different methods and Iran has blamed Israel for these.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated on the outskirts of the capital Tehran on November 27. As per the Associated Press, the attack took place in Absard, a village that is considered a retreat for the Iranian elite. Fakhrizadeh was headed to the location with his wife for the weekend. The black Nissan sedan they were driving in was part of a four-vehicle convoy. Shortly after the convoy made a turn, an electronically-controlled gun turret located inside a parked blue Nissan pickup truck shot at the sedan carrying him. The car came to a stop and the scientist is thought to have moved out of the vehicle, apparently unaware that the sound was from gunfire.

According to Fars, the gun then continued to fire, with bullets hitting Fakhrizadeh in the side and back, including at least one that left his spine severed. As per the report, a bodyguard, who may have also been in the car, tried to save him by jumping on top of him and was also wounded. The pickup truck then exploded.

Fakhrizadeh was reportedly rushed to a local medical clinic before being flown by helicopter to a military hospital in Tehran. But he succumbed to his wounds. The semi-official Mehr news agency quoting Commodore Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated that the weapon zoomed in on him using artificial intelligence. Fadavi said that the gun fired a total of 13 shots at Fakhrizadeh and managed to target him with such accuracy that his wife, sitting just inches away from him in the same vehicle, escaped injury. He added that 11 bodyguards in separate cars were also accompanying the couple at the time. The incident is the second targeted killing of a high-ranking Iranian official since January when outgoing US President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike on General Qassem Soleimani.

Read full article at Info Cellar