Two Iranian nuclear scientists employed at the Bassij Forces Beheshti University in North Tehran were blown up on in two coordinated blasts on their way to work early Monday, Nov. 29. One was killed, the second injured, DEBKAfile's exclusive Iranian sources report. The authorities immediately accused US intelligence and the Israeli Mossad of responsibility.
The attacks occurred at 7.45 a.m. Iranian time, less than 12 hours after the WikiLeaks organization uncovered US diplomatic cables attesting to a proposal by Mossad director Meir Dagan to overthrow the Islamic regime as one of the means of terminating its nuclear program. He proposed enlisting oppressed Iranian minority groups for the task like the Baluchis and their liberation movement, Jundallah
Our sources report from Iran that the death squads, mounted two each on two motorbikes, trailed the two scientists' cars, then speeded past them, attached explosives to their vehicles and were gone before they exploded. The victims have been identified as Prof. Majid Shahriari, who died on the spot when his Peugeot 405 blew up shortly before he reached the university, and Prof. Feredoun Abbassi-Davani, driving a Peugeot 206. He and his wife survived the blast with serious injuries.
Prof. Davani was Dean of Students, a key political post at the university.
DEBKAfile's intelligence sources note that this was the fifth attack directed at Iranian nuclear scientists in Tehran in two years. None of the perpetrators were apprehended. It may well have been the work of Jundallah, which recently began targeting nuclear scientists serving the hated regime and which two months ago reported the abduction of a scientist employed at the Isfahan nuclear facility. Tehran played down that incident claiming the kidnapped man was a driver. But last week he appeared on the Saudi TV station Al Arabiya and described his nuclear work.