TEHRAN, Iran — Gunmen on a motorcycle assassinated an Iranian nuclear physicist on Saturday, Iranian media reports said, in a killing that bore similarities to other slayings of scientists involved in the country’s nuclear work in recent years.
The semi-official ISNA news agency identified the victim as Darioush Rezaei, a 35-year-old physics professor involved in Iran’s nuclear program, and said he was shot dead in front of his home in Tehran. Iran’s official IRNA news agency also reported the killing but had few details on the attack or the man’s background.
Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been murdered in recent years in attacks that Iran has blamed on the U.S. and Israel, which both accuse Tehran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability under the cover of its civilian atomic energy program. Iran denies the accusations and says its program has entirely peaceful aims.
The semi-official Mehr news agency also identified the victim of Saturday’s attack as a professor of physics who was involved in the nuclear program and said he was assassinated in front of his house in Bani Hashem street in Tehran.
The wife of the scientist was wounded in the attack and rushed to a hospital for treatment, Mehr reported, quoting a police official.
Despite U.N. and other sanctions, Iran has steadily moved ahead with its uranium enrichment work, the central aspect of its nuclear program and the process that is of deepest concern to the Wes…
