Israeli military announces killing of 9 Iranian nuclear scientists (+FULL LIST)

The Israeli military has claimed responsibility for the targeted killing of nine Iranian nuclear scientists during a wave of airstrikes launched early Friday as part of a broader operation against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

In a statement issued Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) identified the individuals it says were killed and described the strikes as part of a long-term plan to disrupt Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The military alleged that all nine individuals played key roles in advancing Iran’s nuclear capabilities and were involved in efforts to develop a nuclear bomb.

The scientists were named as: Fereydoon Abbasi, a nuclear engineering specialist; Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a physics expert; Akbar Motalebi Zadeh, a chemical engineering expert; Saeed Barji, a materials engineering specialist; Amir Hassan Fakhahi, a physicist; Abd al-Hamid Minoushehr, a reactor physics expert; Mansour Asgari, also in the field of physics; Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari Daryani, a nuclear engineer; and Ali Bakhouei Katirimi, a mechanics specialist.

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“All the scientists and experts who were eliminated were significant sources of knowledge in the Iranian nuclear project, and had decades of cumulative experience in the development of nuclear weapons,” the IDF said in its statement.

The military added that many of those killed were considered successors to Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the senior Iranian nuclear scientist believed to have been assassinated in 2020—a killing widely attributed to Israel.

According to the IDF, the strikes were carried out in Tehran and were part of a broader assault that also claimed the lives of several senior Iranian military officials. The operation, the military said, was the result of an extensive intelligence-gathering mission.

“The elimination of the scientists was made possible following in-depth intelligence research that intensified over the past year, as part of a classified and compartmentalized IDF plan,” the statement said.

As part of that plan, the IDF said it had mobilized dozens of intelligence analysts to work on a covert programme focused on identifying and tracking individuals central to Iran’s nuclear development.