Iranian state media has identified another senior nuclear scientist that it said was killed in Israeli strikes.
Mohammad Reza Seddighi Saber, who was working on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, was “assassinated” in the latest Israeli strikes in the north of the capital, Tehran, Press TV reported on Tuesday.
Israel claims to have killed multiple high-profile Iranian nuclear scientists over the past 12 days, as it launched sweeping attacks targeting the country’s nuclear weapons program, top military ranks and missile bases.
According to a report Monday by the Council on Foreign Relations, at least 10 Iranian scientists had been killed in the strikes as of then, including Fereydoon Abbasi, the former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, and Amir Hossein Feqhi, the organization’s former deputy head.
Seddighi Saber was among multiple people sanctioned earlier this year by the US State Department and Treasury for their links to Iran’s nuclear program.
According to the State Department, he was the head of a group that works on explosive-related projects at SPND, Iran’s organization for defense, innovation and research. The group’s projects included research and testing applicable to the development of nuclear explosive devices, the State Department said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed Tuesday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had killed another Iranian nuclear scientist, without naming Seddighi Saber.
“In the past 24 hours, the IDF has struck major regime targets in the heart of Tehran, eliminated hundreds of Basij operatives — the regime’s internal repression force — and assassinated another senior nuclear scientist,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Iran replaces assassinated top commanders
Israel’s strikes on Iran have killed several Iranian commanders, including Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, Iran’s highest-ranking military officer, and Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, who was the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an elite wing of the Iranian military.
