Iranian media reports say authorities have recovered the murder weapon used to assassinate Iran’s leading nuclear scientist, Moshen Fakrizadeh, and a number of his bodyguards. His wife, who accompanied him, survived the attack.
UPDATE: Though original reports indicated the murder was carried out by gunmen on the ground, the latest from Iran says that the operation was actually completely remote. A remote-controlled machine gun in a car was activated and aimed via Israeli satellite. After the killing was done, the satellite blew up the car remotely as well, presumably to destroy any evidence Iran could use to detect the technical method of execution. As always, Israel innovates ever more ingenious ways to exterminate its enemies. First there were targeted killings; then drone killings; now satellite remote-controlled killings. What next? Robot killing?
Israel is known to have launched numerous spy satellites designed to surveil Iran. But until now they were thought to involve monitoring Iranian nuclear facilities and military capabilities. No one that I know has ever conceived that such satellites could be used to commit remote controlled murder.
This killing should lend urgency to the development of satellite-killers which countries like Iran could use to target such Israeli satellites. They may not (yet) have such capability. But surely they will urgently devote themselves to this given Israel’s technical escalation.
Other security experts have cast doubt on the latest Iranian claims about the killing. This publication devoted to military affairs lays out the ways in which the story could be accurate, while also offering some skepticism.
As the victim and several of his body guards were in an armored car, I don’t understand why the victim exited his car where he was shot. Given that he was both a scientist and highly intelligent person used to high pressure and dangerous situations, this part of the narrative as offered by Iran doesn’t make sense. At least not to me. His wife remained inside and survived.
Four of the alleged accomplices in the assassination of Iran’s leading nuclear scientist
The murder weapon was described as a “remote controlled machine gun.” There is a weapon that closely resembles this description. It was developed by Rafael Industries:
SAMSON RWS Family
Setting the new RWS standard, the RWS family includes: -SAMSON 30-mm, high-survivability, low silhouette, with under-armor reloading 30-mm automatic cannon, coaxial machine gun 7.62mm, and launcher for 2 SPIKE™ ATGMs; – SAMSON DUAL simultaneously mounts two main and secondary armaments; – SAMSON Mini/SAMSON Mini MLS designed for use in light wheeled or tracked combat vehicles that require improved offensive capabilities; -SAMSON non-lethal for effective crowd and riot control
As I’m not a munitions expert, I can’t be sure this is the exact weapon used in the murder. But Israeli weapons makers produce weapons matching the description offered by Iranian authorities. And the latter have confirmed the weapon was Israeli-made. Soon we will know if the murder weapon is one and the same. If so, this implicates not only the Mossad and PM Netanyahu in war crimes; but it also implicates one of Israel’s leading weapons manufacturer, its weapons developers and senior executives in such a crime. Israel has become an assassination nation.
An Iranian reporter also posted pictures of the four main accomplices in the operation. If the above report is correct then their likely job was to drive the car to the spot where the killing took place. Then they could have easily escaped. They are likely MeK agents trained, supported and smuggled into the country by the Mossad. Numerous previous reports by Seymour Hersh, former Israeli defense minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, and former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo have each confirmed Mossad-MeK collaboration in these killings. Reports say that Iranian authorities are monitoring their Iraqi Kurdish border, where the escaped killers are likely to make their escape. Israel and its allies in Kurdistan will also be making strenuous efforts to extract them safely after completion of their mission.
Iran estimates that as many as 60 accomplices aided in the murder. They would have included Mossad operatives and MeK agents on the ground. This is comparable to the 27 agents UAE authorities identified as implicated in the assassinated of Mahmoud al Mabouh. It takes a Mossad village to train a killer and an Israeli “terror village” to kill an Iranian scientist.
The dark irony of this murder is that if, or I should say when, Iran retaliates and murders Israelis or Americans as retribution for the murders of Fakrizadeh and Soleimani, the first to raise a geschrei about it will be those very same ones crowing about these Israeli murders. Just remember that. And that they will deserve no consideration because of their foul hypocrisy.
But if by some remote chance, the International Criminal Court takes up cases like this, there will be proper justice done against the architects of these brutal crimes against humanity. Nor do I have any problem with including Islamist groups like ISIS or leaders like Assad as culpable of war crimes. Israel’s aren’t the only crimes, just some of the most egregious and flagrant.
I saw the window on State TV …
Iranian nuclear chief scientist’s widow appears on state TV with her husband’s coffin as supreme leader vows to avenge his assassination ‘by Israel’
Because is is exceptional, like the U.S. don’tcha’ know?
Richard, I look forward to your exposing more of the international players in this assassination, especially complicit Americans’ whom we should denounce and protest.
#Breaking #Iran just announced that the assassination of #Fakhrizadeh was conducted by remote control through satellites, of a heavy machine gun and bomb installed in cars on the side of the road; with nobody on the ground. @LaithMarouf
Walter White, or Walter Mitty?
“Rafael, an Israeli defense company specializing in weapons, sells its Samson 30 Remote Weapon System to more than 25 other countries, and, while it is much too large to fit in a Nissan, this is hardly the only such system on the market. Germany, Spain, the United States, Australia and others all manufacture similar systems.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/30/middleeast/iran-mohsen-fakhrizadeh-remote-control-skepticism-intl/index.html
@ Kelvin: You left out one inconvenient fact: the Iranians have the bombed out vehicle and the remnants of the gun used in the murder. They say the weapon has clearly Israeli markings on it. Not to mention that everybody and their brother/sister knows that the Mossad did this. So why would one of the largest weapons producing countries in the world, which manufactures such a weapon itself, go abroad to buy another country’s weapon???
These successful elimination isn’t more “satellite remote-controlled killings” than any other “drone killings”. How do you think the drones are controlled from the ground? WiFi? Bluetooth? At these ranges, everything goes through satellites.
@ Ariel: This murder was different. It was remotely done by satellite, not drone. Drones do not have the capability to fly far enough from Israel to Iran and Israel didn’t apparently want to launch a drone from its airfields in Azerbaijan (too embarrassing for the Azeris probably).
Ariel is no more than a mechanical thing … no feelings, just programmed by an evil society to spout nonsense.
<em>Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice—with serious indications of Israeli role—shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators</em>
The single Gulf state not to condemn the terrorist act was Salman’s Wahhabist Monarchy, the Guardian of Islam’s holiest sites … remember the domestic terror attack on Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979. Wealth does not guarantee wisdom in leadership, often to the contrary as empires crumble.
Qui – the demand to take any terrorist (and for the sake of conversation lets talk about Bin Laden and al-Masri) to court, when it is not possible, and meanwhile give them immunity, it proposterous. How many lives would have been saved have those two been taken out years earlier?
@ Ariel: It certainly was eminently possible to capture Bin Laden and bring him to trial. Instead, Obama put a bullet between his eyes.
@Ariel
Annual olive harvest and settler terror …
Settlers accused of beating rabbi, 80, who was aiding Palestinian olive harvest
@Ariel
Thanking Israel for spreading terror and deaths post 9/11 with neocon policy, warmongering and making the Middle-East a more dangerous place. Fear Inc. and funding Islamophobia.
Terrorism before and after 9/11 – a more dangerous world
Of course the Iranians will no doubt publish photos of the (mangled) weapon with it’s Israeli markings.
Now why an Israeli weapons manufacturer would sell weapons for the international market that bear ‘Israeli markings’ is a question for another day.
Or maybe, Richard, you are wrong, and that Rafael isn’t the manufacturer at all.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/37882/lets-talk-about-remote-controlled-gun-turrets-and-the-killing-of-irans-top-nuclear-scientist
I’m not losing sleep over this one, because if no one is arrested in the first 48 hours, than this story is headed for the same ‘memory hole’ as the Abu Dhabi hotel hit.
Nighty night.
@ Kelvin: First, read my comment rules carefully before publishing another comment here. Second, read all the comments in a thread before commenting to ensure you are not repeating arguments I’ve already rebutted. Third, read all the links I’ve embedded in posts to ensure you are not repeating what I’ve already written. You’ve clearly done neither of these things.
I linked the the Drive article and already rebutted a comment claiming the weapon wasn’t necessarily Israeli. The fact is the killers were Israeli. The idea that they wouldn’t use an Israeli-developed weapon to kill their victim is ludicrous.
Finally, when you combine cynicism with satisfaction over murder and impunity for committing murder, you breach my level of tolerance. Consider this a warning.
@Richard: Bringing Bin Laden “to justice” means, spending months if not year planning the operation, risking people life during the operation. An operation that costs million and all that time, Bin Laden as a leader is responsible for more and more deaths of innocent people around the globe.
Is this really justice? How many people are will to sacrifice of the alter of “justice”?
@Dick: The U.S. Took months to prepare the assassination plot against Bin Laden. They spent tens of millions on it if not more. The idea to arrest and try him would not have required a second more time nor a dollar more cost than killing him. It would have been slightly more dangerous in that moving a captive who is alive is slightly more complicated than one who is dead. But the added danger would be relatively insignificant. Simply put, Obama wanted Osama dead, not in jail.
Yes, there would have been added costs in terms of the legal process, imprisoning him, etc. But compared to the benefit accruing to the US of adhering to the rule of law and international justice, it would have easily been worth any added cost.
As for who killed more innocent people: Obama himself ordered the deaths of far people than Bin Laden is responsible for killing. Add in Trump and Bush and the numbers of astronomically higher.
Pale face speaks with forked tongue …
Adel al Jubeir: “It is not the policy of Saudi Arabia to engage in assasinations; unlike Iran.“
BTW, Israeli drones can reach further than Iran. Easily. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Eitan
If Israel is behind it, I must have cleaned the equipment from any Israeli markings. After all, mossad people know that a bomb do not completely destroy all evidence so why make it easy for the Iranians to point at Israel?
This is probably why Iran haven’t released any pictures yet. They don’t have a smoking gun.
@ Dick: Israeli drones don’t need to fly from Israel to Iran. They can fly from Israel’s base in Azerbaijan.
The reason we know Israel murdered Fakrizadeh is because the Mossad told Ronen Bergman they did it (he is the Mossad’s media scribe). And other Israeli officials admitted to Bergman (probably crowed) that they did it. We don’t need to prove it. Israel has already bragged about it.
Ronen Bergman also wrote that Fakrizadeh was the head of Iran’s nuclear weapon program. You cherry pick facts.
@ Dick: Read the comment rules. You may not express your opinion about a contested matter. It must be supported by evidence. You’ve offered none.
But here is the relevant passage from a NYT piece he co-reported. It’s quite different than what you claim:
He “continued to work” after the weapons program was disbanded in 2003–that could mean anything. Of course he continued to work. That’s what nuclear scientists do. They work. But they don’t specify on what he worked. Because they have no proof that he continued to work on nuclear weapons research. In fact, the reason they know the weapons program ended in 2003 is because they intercepted a phone call in which Fakrizadeh told another scientist that the program had ended.
So as usual your claim fizzles under further examination.
It would be exceptional for Israel to leave marks identifying a weapon as made in Israel as a sort of calling card. That’s chutzpah! But I somehow doubt it.
@ Daniel Waterman: Weapons experts can identify virtually any specialized weapon whether it has “identifying marks” on it or not. This is not a .22 caliber handgun. It’s a highly specialized weapon and there are only a few countries which make it. But they don’t even need to identify the weapon as Israeli. Iran knows the entire operation and munitions used were Israeli because Israel has virtually confessed in world media. Multiple Israeli sources have told reporters that Israel was responsible.
The secrets of Fahrizadeh
For about three decades, Israeli intelligence has built a detailed file on Muhsin Fakhrizadeh, the head of the Iranian nuclear project.