[Zero Hedge] - Amid speculation that Israel is on war footing over a possible strike in Iran in the coming weeks, moments ago Iranian state media reported that the country's top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in Damavand, east of Tehran. He was reportedly accompanied by his bodyguard when they were attacked by a "suicide" attacker at the entrance of Absard town.Allan Snackbar!
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Fakhrizadeh was a brigadier general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) and headed Iran’s nuclear weapons project.
He was a professor of physics at the Imam Hussein University in Tehran and was former head of Iran's Physics Research Center.
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"Unfortunately, the medical team did not succeed in reviving (Fakhrizadeh), and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist achieved the high status of martyrdom after years of effort and struggle," Iran’s armed forces said in a statement carried by state media.
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Fakhrizadeh's assassination comes after Trump reportedly considered bombing Iran and days after US Sec Pompeo had a secret meeting in Saudi Arabia with MBS, Netanyahu, the Mossad Chief, Israeli NatSec Advisor & the Israeli Military Secretary.
The assassination, which comes at a time when Joe Biden has expressed an interest in resetting relations with Iran and has said the U.S. could re-enter the nuclear agreement if Iran returns to compliance, is likely to trigger the sort of popular anger that followed the January assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike ordered by Trump.
According to Bloomberg, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment, as did officials at the Pentagon. The Central Intelligence Agency didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether the U.S. had knowledge of plans to carry out an assassination.