'Satellite-controlled machinegun' killed top Iranian scientist, Iran says

A senior military commander in Iran's armed forces said on Monday that a "satellite-controlled smart system" is what killed Iranian top nuclear scientists Mohsen Fakhrizadeh last Friday.

The scene where Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in Absard, a small city just east of the capital Tehran, on November 27 [File: Fars News Agency via AP]

"No terrorists were present on the ground … Martyr Fakhrizadeh was driving when a weapon using an advanced camera zoomed in on him,” Tasnim, a semiofficial news agency, quoted Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Iran continues to maintain that Israel and an exiled group of ex-Iranian politicians are the masterminds behind the assassination.

“The machinegun was placed on a pick-up truck and was controlled by a satellite,” Fadavi said.

Fakhrizadeh was attacked in a town close to the Iranian capital, Tehran, while traveling in his vehicle to an undisclosed location. Witnesses and Iranian officials said moments after the Fakhrizadeh was shot, an explosion, which Iran claims was also triggered by a satellite controlled remote, erupted.

Iran's military claims there were no actual physical people that carried out any component of the attack.

“His wife, sitting 25 centimeters [10 inches] away from him in the same car, was not injured,” Fadavi said.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied carrying out the attack.

By: Niza Nondo