Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated near Tehran on Friday, was not the only Iranian atomic scientist to be assassinated in recent years. Previously, a number of such scientists were assassinated inside Iran.
Although Iran has not presented concrete evidence of the involvement of Israel or the United States in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists, the "finger of blame" is ready to be directed at these two countries, and their intelligence elements, by the Iranian authorities.
The West accuses Iran of having a secret nuclear program that may lead to the development of a nuclear weapon. Iran denies and insists that its nuclear program is civilian and peaceful, aiming to generate energy.
Below are Iranian scientists who were killed:
Masoud Alimohammadi
On January 12, 2010, Iranian nuclear scientist Masoud Alimohammadi was killed by a remote bomb detonation in Tehran.
The Iranian officials described the professor of physics as a nuclear scientist; a spokesman said that he did not work for the Atomic Energy Organization and that he was a lecturer at Tehran University.
Majid Shahriari
Nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari was killed in a car bomb explosion in Tehran on November 29, 2010, and his wife, who was accompanying him, was injured in the attack.
Iranian officials described the bombing, which targeted Shahriari, who was a lecturer at Shahid Beheshti University, as an Israeli or American-sponsored attack on the country's nuclear program.
Dariush Rezai
Iranian physics professor Dariush Rezai was shot dead in an assassination operation carried out by armed assailants in the east of the Iranian capital on July 23, 2011.
Rezai, who turned thirty-five when he was assassinated, was working as a lecturer at the university and holding a doctorate in physics.
Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan
Chemical engineer Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, was killed when a sticky bomb in his car exploded by a motorcyclist in Tehran in January 2012.
Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani
The head of the physics department at Imam Hussein University Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani and his wife were injured in a car bomb explosion on the same day Shahriari was killed, that is, on November 29, 2010.
The United Nations imposed sanctions on Abbasi-Davani over what Western officials said had participated in suspected research to develop nuclear weapons.