Iranian Nuclear Scientist Killed

bbc.co.uk file photo

Mostafa Ahmadi Rashan, a nuclear scientist and university professor, died earlier today in a bomb blast that also killed his driver. State TV reported that Rashan served as director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran. IRNA, Irans's stated news agency said Roshan had "organizational links" to Iran's nuclear agency. His connection to that agency provides a possible motive for the murder.

Two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car. immediately killing 32-year-old Rashan and his driver. A passenger later died in the hospital of injuries sustained in the attack, and a passerby was injured. The photo at left show the car's removal from the scene.





The United States and its allies are demanding that Iran halt uranium enrichment, because they suspect that it has an ultimate goal of producing nuclear weapons. Iran has long insisted that it has peaceful intentions for the nuclear enrichment program to generate electricity and use for medical treatments.

Tehran has accused Israel's Mossad, the CIA and Britain's spy agency of engaging in an underground terrorism campaign focused on activities related to uranium enrichment. Iran also blames those agencies for 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 on those agencies.

With Iran's tough stance on the Straits of Hormuz, Ham on Wry wonders whether Rashan's murder will provoke further threats.