IDF names 9 Iranian nuclear scientists killed in simultaneous opening strikes, says they advanced efforts toward bomb

The IDF names the nine Iranian nuclear scientists it assassinated in the opening strikes of its operation against Iran’s nuclear program early Friday, and details the efforts to kill them.

The military says these scientists had advanced efforts by Iran to obtain a nuclear bomb.

The nine are named as: Fereydoon Abbasi, expert in nuclear engineering; Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, expert in physics; Akbar Motalebi Zadeh, expert in chemical engineering; Saeed Barji, expert in materials engineering; Amir Hassan Fakhahi, expert in physics; Abd al-Hamid Minoushehr, expert in reactor physics; Mansour Asgari, expert in physics; Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari Daryani, expert in nuclear engineering; and Ali Bakhouei Katirimi, expert in mechanics.

“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 says.

It says that many of them were successors to Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the “father of the Iranian nuclear project,” who was allegedly assassinated by Israel in 2020.

According to the military, the nine were killed in simultaneous strikes on Tehran early Friday, in the same wave of attacks that eliminated dozens of military commanders, including six top officials.

“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 military says.

As part of the plan, the IDF says dozens of intelligence researchers “worked on a secret project aimed at tracking key nuclear scientists in Iran over the course of several years.”