Iran opposition group denies involvement in nuclear scientist’s killing

An exiled opposition group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, rejects as “rancor and lies” Tehran’s accusation that it was involved in nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s killing.

“Accusing the Mujahedin of killing the regime’s nuclear experts is nothing new and is a reaction to the exposure of the entirety of the mullahs’ nuclear structure and program,” the group says.

In Tehran, Rear-Admiral Ali Shamkhani, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary, charged today that the Mujahedin were “certainly” involved, along with “the Zionist regime and the Mossad,” referring to the Israeli government and its spy agency.

Fakhrizadeh was fatally wounded Friday outside the capital as assailants targeted his car and engaged in a gunfight with his bodyguards, according to the defense ministry.

The Mujahedeen, in a statement, dismiss “Shamkhani’s rage, rancor, and lies” against the outlawed group, while claiming credit for past revelations on Iran’s nuclear program and previously secret sites.

“For the first time in 2004, the PMOI (People’s Mujahedeen) identified Mohsen Fakhrizadeh as the official in charge of the regime’s bomb-making apparatus,” it says.

The group says it has “saved the world and the Iranian people from the danger of the mullahs’ speedy access to a nuclear bomb and blocked their path.”

— AFP