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Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:25 pm
by Graham Kennedy
Source
Iran has blamed Israel for the murder of a nuclear scientist who was killed by a bomb that had been attached to his car.
Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, died after two unidentified men on a motorbike fastened a magnetic bomb to his vehicle outside a university in east Tehran. Two others in the car were wounded and taken to hospital. One of them, Mr Roshan's driver, died later of his injuries. The dead scientist worked at Iran's uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, and officials were quick to put the blame on Israel. "The responsibility of this explosion falls on the Zionist regime," said provincial governor Safar Bratloo. "The method of this terrorist action is similar to previous actions that targeted Iran's nuclear scientists."
Vice president Mohammad Reza Rahimi also pointed the finger at "those who claim to be combatting terrorism" - a thinly-veiled accusation of American involvement.
"They should know that Iranian scientists are more determined than ever in striding towards Iran's progress," he said. Mr Roshan is the fourth Iranian scientist to have been killed by a car bomb in the capital since early 2010. The current head of Iran's atomic organisation, Fereydoun Abbasi, escaped another such incident in November 2010, when he managed to scramble out of his car with his wife just before the attached bomb exploded. Those attacks were viewed by Iranian officials as assassination operations carried out by Israel's Mossad intelligence service, possibly with help from its US counterparts.
Hard to say that Israel or the US did this, but you have to at least strongly suspect it, I'd have said.
Were they right to do it, assuming they did? Tough question. The best answer I can come up with is "maybe".
What do you think?
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 6:58 pm
by Mikey
I think Tehran would have blamed Israel if he had caught a cold. There is, apparently, no evidence with which to assign blame save "They might have" and "we don't like them." I certainly wouldn't put it past Israel (or the U.S., for that matter, though our assassins appear to be considerably less effective) but I'd expect Israel's methodology to be more akin to two in the dome then ghost.
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 7:45 pm
by Tsukiyumi
I like the magnetic car bomb approach. It's classy, and hilarious.
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 9:18 pm
by Mikey
Tsukiyumi wrote:I like the magnetic car bomb approach. It's classy, and hilarious.
Do they have recordings that say, "Knock, knock" before they detonate?
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 5:28 am
by Tsukiyumi
It just seems like the Acme approach to assassinations to me.
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 6:18 am
by Vic
To send a clear message subtle methods don't allways work well. Big and flashy sinks into even the dullest of perceptions. And anyway......boom stuff = fun stuff!
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 3:31 am
by Deepcrush
To be fair, the Israel does have a fondness for remote explosives.
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 12:30 am
by Mikey
Deepcrush wrote:To be fair, the Israel does have a fondness for remote explosives.
IDK, I guess I just remember the good ol' days of Entebbe and Munich. I still think that for the organization that developed Krav Maga, two Lapua .338's in the dome seems more their style.
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 8:31 am
by Teaos
Seems pretty unsubtle, there is no way to know who did it officially but it is pretty in your face and a bit risky.
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:38 pm
by Graham Kennedy
It could be that this was the only way they could get to him. No idea what security is around these guys, but apparently several Iranian nuclear scientists have suffered untimely deaths, or very timely deaths depending on your point of view. Maybe he was careful enough in his routine that there just wasn't a chance for somebody to walk up and put a couple of 9mm in his head, but there was a chance to get to his car.
Or perhaps they were trying for a bit of PR. Bombs are a pretty notoriously poor way of assassinating a specific individual, but they do make for a nice public statement.
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 9:40 am
by Deepcrush
Mikey wrote:Deepcrush wrote:To be fair, the Israel does have a fondness for remote explosives.
IDK, I guess I just remember the good ol' days of Entebbe and Munich. I still think that for the organization that developed Krav Maga, two Lapua .338's in the dome seems more their style.
Those kinds of killings are meant as visual statements. A car bomb is more a way of removing a problem without being proven you were involved.
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 4:12 pm
by Mikey
I suppose. "Plausible deniablity" was never Mossad's or Tzahal's forte.
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 4:34 pm
by Graham Kennedy
They're willing to settle for Implausible Deniability
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 5:18 pm
by Mikey
Re: Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist
Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 7:32 pm
by Captain Seafort
Mikey wrote:I suppose. "Plausible deniablity" was never Mossad's or Tzahal's forte.
This
is the bunch who are still trying to pretend they haven't got nukes.
