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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Assassination of a nuclear scientist: The dramatic tale of Israel's robot killer
2022-09-05
[Western Standard] The entire operation took less than a minute.

In all, fifteen bullets were fired, leaving Iran's top nuclear scientist dead.

Iran’s intelligence service had warned him of a possible assassination plot but the scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, had brushed it off.

That afternoon, he and his wife would leave their vacation home on the Caspian Sea and drive to their country house in Absard, a sleepy town east of Tehran, where they planned to spend the weekend.

Disregarding the advice of his security team, he often insisted on driving his own car instead of having bodyguards drive him in an armored vehicle — a breach of security that had been noticed.

According to a special report in the New York Times, shortly after noon on Friday, Nov. 27, he slipped behind the wheel of his black Nissan Teana sedan, his wife in the passenger seat beside him, and hit the road.

Since 2007, Israeli agents of the Mossad had assassinated five Iranian nuclear scientists and wounded another.

Most of the scientists worked directly for Fakhrizadeh (pronounced fah-KREE-zah-deh) on what Israeli intelligence officials said was a covert program to build a nuclear warhead.

But the man Israel said led the bomb program was elusive.

In 2009, a hit team was waiting for Fakhrizadeh at the site of a planned assassination in Tehran, but the operation was called off at the last moment, the New York Times reported. The plot had been compromised, the Mossad suspected, and Iran had laid an ambush.

This time they were going to try something new — a killer robot.
Related:
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh: 2022-06-04 Iran probes death of another Revolutionary Guard colonel, denies assassination
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh: 2022-05-27 Israel eliminates IRGC officer, who was deputy head of covert unit
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh: 2022-05-26 NYT: Israel said to tell US it killed IRGC officer, who was deputy head of covert unit
Posted by:Besoeker

#9  At the level where the work is done, it's the worker's call.

The would be Princep in Argentina didn't clean his tools or make sure he had primo ammo.

So maybe taking the time to be elaborate has it's advantages.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2022-09-05 16:14  

#8  Why not an RC car with a bomb, like in the movie "The Dead Pool"?
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2022-09-05 16:11  

#7  Is this actually different from a cruise missile or smart bomb? Or a land mine?
Posted by: ed in texas   2022-09-05 16:09  

#6  Saw the robot killer guns episode on NCIS a decade ago
Posted by: Frank G   2022-09-05 12:19  

#5  
Posted by: M. Murcek   2022-09-05 08:37  

#4  Anybody else notice the missing Nissan logo in the grille? Anti-product placement in action
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2022-09-05 08:14  

#3  Okay, read the article in full. Someone in the Mossad was obsessed with the movie Jackal (1997). 🤖 Except they did a better job than Bruce Willis' Jackal.
Posted by: Dron66046   2022-09-05 06:55  

#2  
"What's the fun in being Iran's top nuclear scientist if I can't drive my ow... uhh! Get down, honey!"

BLaM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAMMITTY BLAM!
Posted by: Dron66046   2022-09-05 06:43  

#1  Disregarding the advice of his security team, he often insisted on driving his own car instead of having bodyguards drive him in an armored vehicle — a breach of security that had been noticed.

Where it all started going dreadfully wrong for Mohsen.
Posted by: Besoeker   2022-09-05 06:28  

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