Death and robots. On the anniversary of the mysterious assassination of “the father of the Iranian nuclear bomb”

The entire structure weighed about a ton, mainly due to explosives (however, according to the Israeli version, the size of the bomb was small), so it was brought into Iran in parts and reassembled in the country. The robot was designed to fit in the back of the popular Iranian Nissan Zamyad pickup truck. The truck had cameras installed in different directions, the car was stuffed with explosives. 15 bullets were fired at the physicist’s car, 3 of which fatally wounded him. After that pickup was remotely detonated, however, it was not possible to completely destroy the weapon.

Fakhrizadeh was evacuated by helicopter to the hospital, but doctors were unable to save him. Israeli journalists named the death of Fakhrizadeh “a great psychological and professional blow to Iran.”

Former head of the Iranian Nuclear Energy Agency Fereydun Abbasi outlined a little another version circumstances of the attempt. Allegedly, they wanted to fire on the convoy of Fakhrizade so that he would stop next to a Nissan pickup truck loaded with explosives, and then blow up the car. However, Fakhrizade stopped the car before reaching the pickup truck, hearing the sounds of gunfire. He got out of an armored vehicle, possibly to protect his wife, and was wounded in the shoulder by the attackers. One of the scientist’s bodyguards was killed. The explosion of the Nissan distracted the attention of the guards, which allowed the attackers to hit their victim.

There is also a third version. Her set out Javad Mogui, a publicist and documentary filmmaker close to the IRGC, and Mohamad Akhvaze, a journalist. According to this version, Fakhrizade’s cortege was ambushed by snipers. The group of attackers consisted of 12 people, who were assisted in terms of logistics by another 50 people, apparently outside Iran. 2 snipers, 4 gunmen in a Hyundai Santa Fe car, 6 gunmen on 4 motorcycles and a mined Nissan pickup truck took part in the attack. Half an hour before the arrival of Fakhrizade’s convoy, which consisted of three bulletproof vehicles, electricity was cut off in the area at the entrance to Absarad. Power line pylons were also damaged by a Nissan explosion as the third vehicle in the convoy was passing by. After that, the terrorists began an intense firefight with guards. Ahvaze tweeted: “According to Iranian leaks, the leader of the assassination group pulled Fakhrizade out of his car, shot him and made sure he was killed.” Then the attackers disappeared without suffering any losses.

Note that all unofficial versions suggesting an attack on Fakhrizade’s motorcade by a group of terrorists look unconvincing. The capabilities of the Mossad would hardly have allowed a group of 10-12 armed militants to be transported to Iran (or recruited on the spot) and discreetly grouped in broad daylight in one place next to an elite town, probably guarded. And it is not clear how they managed to cope with Fakhrizada’s guards without loss, which, according to Israeli data, also numbered 12 people, and at the same time did not inflict any losses on her. According to Israeli sources, neither the physicist’s wife nor 12 of his bodyguards were injured in the attack.

On the contrary, in the official Iranian version, everything sounds convincing, except for one detail. It is hard to believe that, having heard machine-gun shots, the scientist took them for the knock of a faulty engine and got out of the car, thereby exposing himself to the bullets. After all, he knew very well what was the target for the Israeli special services. But the version of the official version, published NYT explains everything. Agreeing to her, Fakhrizade did not leave the car, but was struck by armor-piercing bullets.

During the entire operation, only one participant in the assassination attempt – the owner of a Nissan jeep – was “spotted”. But he left Iran a month before the assassination attempt. According to the Israeli newspaper The Jewish Chronicle, the operation was indeed carried out by the Mossad. More than 20 Israeli agents, some of whom are citizens of Iran, took part in its preparation, which took 8 months. The preparation included both painstaking observation of Fakhrizade’s routes of movement, and delivery to Iran in parts of the murder weapon. The agents found out that Fakhrizade leaves for his country villa at a certain time on Fridays. They also established exactly what place it occupies in the car and at what speed the car is moving. Of the 15 bullets fired in Fakhrizada, 13 hit the target. However, his wife, who was sitting just 10 inches (25.4 cm) from him, was unharmed. None of the bodyguards were killed or wounded, so the guard who tried to cover the scientist who got out of the car and received 4 bullets is a fake of Iranian propaganda. The same fake is the assertion of some Iranian sources that the assassins finished off their victim with a control shot. In fact, the agents who controlled the unit were located several kilometers away, in Iranian territory. They monitored the movement of the car, and when it reached a certain point, they pressed the control button for a high-precision machine gun. Satellite control of the machine gun was not used, contrary to the Iranian version.