CBS/AP/ November 29, 2010, 10:40 PM

Bombs Kill, Injure 2 Iran Nuclear Scientists

Law enforcement officers search the home of Dr. Timothy Jorden in Hamburg, N.Y., Thursday, June 14, 2012. Jorden is sought in connection with the hospital shooting death of his ex-girlfriend at Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, N.Y. on Wednesday. (AP Photo/David Duprey)

Law enforcement officers search the home of Dr. Timothy Jorden in Hamburg, N.Y., Thursday, June 14, 2012. Jorden is sought in connection with the hospital shooting death of his ex-girlfriend at Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, N.Y. on Wednesday. (AP Photo/David Duprey) / David Duprey

Updated 3:41 p.m. ET

Iran's state TV says separate but identical bomb attacks have killed a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist and wounded another in the capital, Tehran.

The state television website says attackers riding on motorcycles attached bombs to the car windows of the scientists as they were driving to their workplaces on Monday morning.

One bomb killed Majid Shahriari, a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at Tehran University, and wounded his wife.

The second blast seriously wounded nuclear physicist Fereidoun Abbasi.

Abbasi was named on a list of nuclear personnel under an international travel ban and asset freeze, under a 2007 U.N. Security Council resolution.

According to the resolution, Abbasi is a Defense Ministry scientist with links to the Institute of Applied Physics, and working closely with Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, another nuclear scientist on the sanctions list.

At least two other Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in recent years. Iran has said it suspects the attacks were part of a covert attempt by the West to undermine the country's nuclear program.

The attacks come as thousands of classified U.S. diplomatic cables, revealed to the public by the WikiLeaks organization, shed light on Arab leaders' deep concerns over Tehran's nuclear program.

Some of the cables include statements by leaders in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, urging the U.S. to attack Iran to end the isolated regime's uranium enrichment program.

Iran temporarily stopped enriching uranium earlier this month for unspecified reasons, the U.N. nuclear agency said last week.

On Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirmed what observers have suspected for weeks: that the shutdown was caused by the computer worm known as Stuxnet.

Iran had previously denied the Stuxnet worm, which experts say is calibrated to destroy centrifuges, had caused any damage, saying they uncovered it before it could have any effect.

But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said it "managed to create problems for a limited number of our centrifuges." Speaking to a press conference Monday, he said the problems were resolved.

Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi initially said details about the virus became known only after Iran's "enemies failed to achieve their goals."

Salehi said in October that a months-long delay in starting up Iran's first nuclear power plant was the result of a small leak, not the computer worm.

Iran's refusal to stop enriching and accept offers of nuclear fuel from abroad has caused concern because enriched uranium can also arm nuclear warheads. Tehran is under four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to stop enriching.
© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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humboldtus says:
Why isn't CBS reporting that Israel is behind the assassination of Iran's nuke scientists?
http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/08/10354553-israel-teams-with-terror-group-to-kill-irans-nuclear-scientists-us-officials-tell-nbc-news
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noloyalisti says:
Smells like more criminal activities of the state sponsored terror group the CIA.
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tsigili says:
Looks like there are some home grown anti-government forces at play.
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karek40 says:
Added comment, who ever did it was probably not a muslim - how did I draw that conclusion, they did not sacriface their life obtaining a guarentee of their heaven, they quickly attached the bomb on the cars window and drove off.
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karek40 says:
If someone had time travel and were able to go back and kill Hitler before he came to power would that someone be a terrorist or a hero saving millions of lives? There is little doubt that Iran will eventually use nuclear a weapon on Israel. That being the case if you delay Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons by killing their scientists are you a terrorist? Or perhaps saving millions of lives are you a patriot. No answer to these questions, just the questions.
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TheBackDoorman says:
Isreal Terrorist? Has Isreal turned into what they fear the most. During world war two they we're torture, assassinated, starved and imprisoned in mass camps. Now they do the same to other's. Have they become the evil they fear?
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Cassarit says:
Hold on a second. Isn't bombing and murdering government scientists an act of terrorism? I seriously doubt the United States would be doing this. Who else would?
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