Iran's top nuclear scientist assassinated near Tehran

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh's car is believed to have been ambushed by armed assailants. IRIB news agency/AFP

A top Iranian nuclear scientist died in hospital from wounds suffered during an attack by "armed terrorists" on Friday, the country's defense ministry has confirmed.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was "seriously wounded" when assailants targeted his car before being engaged in a gunfight with his security team, the statement said.

It added that Fakhrizadeh, who headed the defense ministry's research and innovation organization, was later "martyred" after medics failed to revive him.

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Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has claimed there were reasons to believe Israel was involved in the assassination.

"Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice – with serious indications of [an] Israeli role – shows desperate warmongering of [the] perpetrators," Zarif wrote on Twitter.

He also called on the international community to "end their shameful double standards and condemn this act of state terror."

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh headed the defense ministry's research and innovation organization. /Khamenei.ir/AFP

Fakhrizadeh has long been described by the United Nations and Israel as a leader of a covert atomic bomb program halted in 2003. Iran denied seeking to weaponize nuclear energy.

"Unfortunately, the medical team did not succeed in reviving [Fakhrizadeh], and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist achieved the high status of martyrdom after years of effort and struggle," Iran's armed forces said in a statement carried by state media.

The semi-official news agency Tasnim claimed the attack was carried out by terrorists. /IRIB news agency/AFP

The semi-official news agency Tasnim said earlier that "terrorists blew up another car" before firing on a vehicle carrying Fakhrizadeh and his bodyguards in an ambush outside the capital Tehran.

Fakhrizadeh has the distinction of being the only Iranian scientist named in the International Atomic Energy Agency's 2015 "final assessment" of open questions about Iran's nuclear program and whether it was aimed at developing a nuclear bomb.

Source(s): AP ,AFP ,Reuters