Professor of nuclear physics killed in bomb blast in Tehran

[Carsten Wiethoff]

From http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-w...4201.story:

By Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim January 12, 2010 | 12:25 a.m.




Reporting from Beirut and Tehran - An Iranian man described by officials as a nuclear scientist and university professor was killed in a bomb blast this morning in Tehran, officials told state media.

Massoud Ali-Mohammadi died in an explosion set off near his home in the upscale district of Qeytarieh in the north of the capital at about 7:30 a.m. local time.

The website of Iran's state-controlled Press TV reported he was killed by a booby-trapped motorcycle. But the hard-line Fars news agency, close to the Revolutionary Guard, said a remote-controlled bomb was set in a trash bin outside his house.

Tehran's chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dowlatabadi described Mohammadi as a nuclear scientist. Fars described him as a professor at Tehran University, though he is not among the scholars listed on the institution's website.

Jafari-Dowlatabadi told the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency that forensic experts were conducting post-mortem exams. No suspect has been arrested, he told the agency.

Iranian officials immediately suggested the nation's foreign rivals had a hand in his slaying.

State television described Ali-Mohammadi as a "committed and revolutionary university professor martyred in a terrorist operation by counterrevolutionary agents affiliated with the global arrogance" while Press TV described a "staunch supporter of the Islamic Revolution."

Arabic language Al Jazeera television cited unnamed Iranian sources as saying, "Israel is behind assassinating" Ali-Mohammadi.

Iran's top diplomat last month accused the United States -- and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday -- of kidnapping one of its nuclear scientists. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Shahram Amiri, who worked for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, disappeared during a summer religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

He said Tehran had evidence that the U.S. was involved in the disappearance.

Iran's nuclear program has alarmed the West and Israel, which accuse Tehran of using civilian atomic research program to mask an ultimate plan to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Several rounds of sanctions have failed to push Iranians into giving up sensitive aspects of their nuclear program, which they insist is entirely peaceful.

The blaming of Israel seems to come naturally in this case...