Iranian nuke scientist killed by magnetic bomb

In this photo provided by the International Iran Photo Agency, Iranian security forces stand guard around the site of an explosion outside a university in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 11, 2012. / AP Photo/IIPA, Sajjad Safari

last updated 5:45 p.m. ET

TEHRAN, Iran - Two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and his driver Wednesday, reports said. The slayings suggest a widening covert effort to set back Iran's atomic program.

The attack in Tehran bore a strong resemblance to earlier killings of scientists working on the Iranian nuclear program. It is certain to amplify authorities' claims of clandestine operations by Western powers and their allies to halt Iran's nuclear advances.

Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran was killed Jan. 11, 2012

/ CBS

The blast killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, state TV reported. State news agency IRNA said Roshan had "organizational links" to Iran's nuclear agency, which suggests a direct role in key aspects of the program.

Natanz is Iran's main enrichment site, but officials claimed earlier this week that they are expanding some operations to an underground site south of Tehran with more advanced equipment.

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The U.S. and its allies are pressuring Iran to halt uranium enrichment, a key element of the nuclear program that the West suspects is aimed at producing atomic weapons. Uranium enriched to low levels can be used as nuclear fuel but at higher levels, it can be used as material for a nuclear warhead.

Iran denies it is trying to make nuclear weapons, saying its program is for peaceful purposes only and is geared toward generating electricity and producing medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.

Tehran has accused Israel's Mossad, the CIA and Britain's spy agency of engaging in an underground "terrorism" campaign against nuclear-related targets, including at least three slayings since early 2010 and the release of a malicious computer virus known at Stuxnet in 2010 that temporarily disrupted controls of some centrifuges — a key component in nuclear fuel production.

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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. played no role in Roshan's death.

I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran," Clinton told reporters. "We believe there has to be an understanding between Iran, its neighbors and the international community that finds a way forward for it to end its provocative behavior, end its search for nuclear weapons and rejoin the international community and be a productive member of it."

Israeli officials, however, have hinted about covert campaigns against Iran without directly admitting involvement.

On Tuesday, Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was quoted as telling a parliamentary panel that 2012 would be a "critical year" for Iran — in part because of "things that happen to it unnaturally."

"Many bad things have been happening to Iran in the recent period," added Mickey Segal, a former director of the Israeli military's Iranian intelligence department. "Iran is in a situation where pressure on it is mounting, and the latest assassination joins the pressure that the Iranian regime is facing."

Defiant Iranian authorities pointed the finger at archfoe Israel.

First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said Israeli agents were behind the attack, but cannot "prevent progress" in what Iran claims are peaceful nuclear efforts.

Safar Ali Baratloo, a senior security official, was quoted by Fars as also saying the attack was the work of Israelis.

"The magnetic bomb is of the same types already used to assassinate our scientists," he said.

Roshan, 32, was inside the Iranian-assembled Peugeot 405 car together with two others when the bomb exploded near Gol Nabi Street in north Tehran, Fars reported. It said Roshan's driver later died at a hospital from wounds sustained in the attack.

IRNA said an 85-year-old passer-by was wounded in the blast.

Fars described the explosion as a "terrorist attack" targeting Roshan, a graduate of the prestigious Sharif University of Technology in Tehran.

Roshan was a chemistry expert who was involved in building polymeric layers for gas separation, which is the use of various membranes to isolate gases. He was also deputy director of commercial affairs for the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in central Iran. According to conservative news website mashreghnews.ir, Roshan was in charge of purchasing and supplying equipment for the facility.

Natanz is the centerpiece of Iran's efforts to make its own nuclear fuel. But Iran said earlier this week it was expanding some operations to a bunker-like site south of Tehran protected under 300 feet (90 meters) of rock. The existence of the Fordo facility has been known for more than two years, but some Western officials fear the opening of the labs could be another step toward developing nuclear arms.

The conservative news website, alef.ir, posted several papers Roshan contributed. It said his specialty, polymeric layers, have uses in uranium enrichment by having uranium gas pass through filtering membranes.

Since December, Iran has held or announced a series of war games that included threats to close the Gulf's vital Strait of Hormuz — the passageway for about one-sixth of the world's oil — in retaliation for stronger U.S.-led sanctions.

"Assassinations, military threats and political pressures ... The enemy insists on the tactic of creating fear to stop Iran's peaceful nuclear activities," Fars quoted lawmaker Javad Jahangirzadeh as saying in reaction to the blast.

A similar bomb explosion exactly two years ago — Jan. 12, 2010 — killed Tehran University professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a senior physics professor. He was killed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his car as he was about to leave for work.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency said that Roshan had planned to attend a memorial ceremony later Wednesday for the slain professor.

In November 2010, a pair of back-to-back bomb attacks in different parts of the capital killed another nuclear scientist and wounded one more.

The slain scientist, Majid Shahriari, was a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran and cooperated with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. The wounded scientist, Fereidoun Abbasi, was almost immediately appointed head of Iran's atomic agency.

Shahriari's expertise — neutron transport — lies at the heart of nuclear chain reactions in reactors and bombs. And Abbasi, now Iran's nuclear chief, has been described as a laser expert and one of the few top Iranian specialists in nuclear isotope separation.

And in July 2011, motorcycle-riding gunmen killed Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electronics student. Other reports identified him as a scientist involved in suspected Iranian attempts to make nuclear weapons.

As CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports, assassinations are not the only covert tactics being used against Iran. In 2010, the control systems at an Iranian uranium enrichment facility were hit by a computer virus known as Stuxnet, causing centrifuges to spin out of control and self destruct.

Before and after images of an Iranian missile complex damaged in December, 2011.

/ CBS

And, notes Martin, last December an explosion at a rocket testing complex outside Teheran killed the head of Iran's ballistic missile program along with several senior engineers. Although it is not clear whether that blast, before and after pictures at left, was accidental or deliberate.

Rezaeinejad allegedly participated in developing high-voltage switches, a key component in setting off the explosions needed to trigger a nuclear warhead.

The United States and some allies say Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons technology. Iran denies the allegations, saying that its program is intended for energy and medical research.

The latest blast is certain to bring fresh charges by Iran that the U.S. and allies are waging a clandestine campaign of bloodshed and sabotage in attempts to set back Iran's nuclear efforts.

"Instead of actually fighting a conventional war, Western powers and their allies appear to be relying on covert war tactics to try to delay and degrade Iran's nuclear advancement," said Theodore Karasik, a security expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.

He said the use of magnetic bombs bears the hallmarks of covert operations.

"It's a very common way to eliminate someone," he added. "It's clean, easy and efficient."

Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born analyst based in Israel, said Iran's leadership is being pushed toward a decision on whether to "retaliate or compromise" as sanctions squeeze the economy and undercut the value of the Iranian rial.

"From the international consensus that we can see against Iran, even if (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) does retaliate, it's not very likely that the pressure — sanctions and isolation — would ease," he said. "He's in a tight spot."

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Editor's note: The headline in an earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the murdered scientist as being from Israel. He is Iranian.

[sawolf]

They don't want to directly attack just one city. The HEMP testing they have successfully completed is capable of destroying the entire Nation's technological base. At 400 miles up and over the midwest the resultant pulse will destroy ALL electrical circuits. No transportation except horse and buggy, clean water ,refrigeration, heating, internet, sewage treatment ,etc.. We will be effectively thrown back into the 18th century with a population of 310 million. Most of us will die a slow death.

[luthern79]

Israel has already been told that they will be wiped off the map by Iran. If they killed this scientist, they have nothing to lose!!

[p_syrus]

Q: What is the name of a rogue nation which defies international law and conducts terrorist actions throughout the world.

A. Israel

[shnovitz]

You're at it again. Racist rubbish. Israel is a legitimate State, voted into being by a majority in the United Nations in 1948. Arabs and Muslims are very busy killing Jews, Christians and one another all over the world, and you say Israel conducts terrorist actions. Stupid, you are. If Israel doesn't defend itself, no-one else will, that's for sure. We have learnt that the hard way. And "mikedev75" is right: DON'T MESS WITH ISRAEL. MOSSAD KNOWS HOW TO GET THE JOB DONE, AND I WISH THEM WELL. "luthern79" is also right: Israel has literally nothing to lose, as Iran AND the Arab Charter have sworn to annihilate Israel and every Jew within it. It's about time you Jew-haters learnt that we will stay the course. What you tried in the past is not going to work again. We have sworn, "Never Again," and we mean it, every day, in every way. Put that in your anti-Jewish pipe and smoke it.

[Samlv]

People like this are closely monitored in Iran. It is impossible to believe that this happened in broad daylight and nobody was caught. Unless Iran did it themselves.

[Lerianis4]

Are you joking? With all due respect, there are cameras on top of cameras in America today and we have people killed 'in broad daylight' all the damned time.

[Void-Master]

So Iran gets a dose of its own medicine and squeals like the bitsh pig that it is.

Any number of intelligence services could be behind these assassinations. It could even be more than one working together. And there is no certainty that Western powers are behind them. For example, Saudi Arabia is not particularly tickled with Iran's nuclear program.

Still, I can't help but suspect that those guys on the motorcycle were locals. How else would they get away? Foreigners in Iran tend to stand out. If any foreign intelligence services are behind these assassinations, most likely they are doing so by helping the opposition party; most likely providing training and maybe even limited material support.

[UForgotPoland]

Sounds like something off a Jason Bourne movie.

[thomasmc1957]

Israel is a rogue terrorist state, trying to drag the USA into a nuclear war.

[P0STING_AWAY]

You said it, brother.

[Samlv]

Israel is the only democracy in that region. So, if we don't support them, then what?

[samael2014]

"The U.S. and its allies are pressuring Iran to halt uranium enrichment, a key element of the nuclear program that the West suspects is aimed at producing atomic weapons. Uranium enriched to low levels can be used as nuclear fuel but at higher levels, it can be used as material for a nuclear warhead."


And giving the MIDDLE F**K YOU finger to God Himself, by committing cold-blooded murder is certainly not beyond the respect of God by Jews in Israel or their anti-Christian collaborators in the U.S. government.

That's how much respect for God these disgusting parasites on U.S. taxpayers have -- and God knows and sees it EVERY DAY.

[Fatesrider]

If the world had less God and more common sense, much of our troubles would go away.

[irreverentasever]

Did anyone see a small mushroom cloud after the explosion?

[Dukme]

I think the assassination of the Iranian scientists could be the work of the Iranian government. This is their ticket out of the sanctions. Due to their pride they can't say to the West "you won, stop the sanctions, we'll give up our ambition to build nuclear weapon" so they come up with the excuse that they don't have the expertise to continue with the nuclear research. Other supporting facts are that 1) Iran looks to be policing the foreigners entering Iran well. How many times the Iranian government is able to catch this spy or that spy. For a foreigner to enter Iran is not a trivial task. :) Now you can say Americans stood out like a sore thumb. 2) The Israeli government has carried out assassination targets before so blaming the assassination of the Iranian scientists on the Israeli is a believeable story. 3) May be Iranian scientists haven't made much progress on the nuclear enrichment so the Iranian government decided to take them out to tell them to move it! Funny thing about Iran, with all the oil they have why don't they just buy the damn nuclear weapons from China or Russia instead of building it themself?

[venusvegasvada]

It's also possible he was killed by Iran because they may be worried he was going to go public about their bomb making plans. As a scientist, he may have been ok with nuclear power, but not the bomb. The bomb side may have been hidden from him and he found out about it and was protesting it. Could be.