October 11-13
A senior officer in Iran’s cyber warfare program has been shot dead, triggering speculation that outside powers are once again assassinating key figures. But the Pasdaran said they could not yet conclude the victim was killed by foreign enemies.
Mojtaba Ahmadi, who was described as a senior Pasdar officer—but not the commander—of Iran’s Cyber Warfare Headquarters, was found dead Saturday in a wooded area near Karaj, west of Tehran.
The website Alborz first carried the report of his death. The Pasdaran later confirmed it and went out of its way to deny Gen. Ahmadi likely was the victim of a targeted assassination.
That suggested suicide as a possibility. But Alborz said he was shot twice in the heart, which ruled out suicide. Two shots also made an accident highly unlikely. That focused speculation on a homicide from some personal issue.
Ahmadi was last seen leaving his home for work Saturday. He was later found with two bullets in the heart, according to Alborz. “I could see two bullet wounds on his body and the extent of his injuries indicated that he had been shot from a close range with a pistol,” an eyewitness told the website.
The commander of the local police said that two people on a motorbike had been involved in the killing—a standard technique in political killings in Iran.
Four nuclear scientists have been killed in recent years. The three killed by bombs have been blamed on Israel by the government. The death of the other scientist, who was shot in the head, was described at first as a personal killing. Since then, he has often been honored as a martyr killed by Israel, however.
Beyond those four scientists, a Pasdar general who headed Iran’s missile program died in a huge explosion on a Pasdar base. In the media, he is also often called a martyr killed by Israel, but the government has made clear that it concludes the huge explosion was an accident.
The Cyber Warfare Headquarters confirmed that Ahmadi had been one of its senior officers and posted messages of condolence.
Subsequently, a statement from the Imam Hassan Mojtaba division of the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guard) said Ahmadi’s death was being investigated. It warned against speculating “prematurely about the identity of those responsible for the killing.”
The killings of the four men linked to Iran’s nuclear program are now blamed on Isarel—though over the years they have variously been blamed on Mossad, the CIA, MI6, the Mojahedin-e Khalq, the Tondar opposition party and unnamed “regional” intelligence agencies.
The rash of deaths began January 11, 2010, when nuclear scientist Masud-Ali Mohammadi was killed by a bomb remotely detonated when Mohammadi walked up to his parked car.
In November 2010, Majid Shahriari, another nuclear scientist, died when a magnetic bomb was placed on his car as he was driven through traffic. That very same hour, a similar magnetic bomb was attached to the car of fellow nuclear scientist Abbas Davari, who leapt from his car just before the bomb went off and escaped serious injury. Davari later was named chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and headed it until August when President Rohani replaced him.
On January 11, 2012, two years to the day after the first in the series of killings, Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, yet another nuclear scientist, was killed by yet another magnetic bomb attached to his car in traffic.
In between, in July 2011, Daryoush Rezainejad, 35, was shot in the head by a motorcyclist and killed. He has been variously described as a nuclear scientist or a student.
Immediately after that killing, Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi said Rezainejad’s death did not appear to be a political assassination but rather a murder for personal reasons.
However, one year later, Moslehi announced Rezainejad’s killers had now been arrested and said the shooters acted “with the support of the CIA and Mossad.”
Moslehi did not say what caused him to change his interpretation of the crime.
A few weeks after Rezainejad’s death, Moslehi said his investigation showed clearly that Israel had nothing whatsoever to do with that murder. Moslehi said the investigation into the murder was still ongoing, “however, we have come to the conclusion that they [Israelis] have not been involved in that assassination.”
Two men on a motorcycle pulled up near a crowd of parents waiting outside a nursery school for their children to emerge. The motorcyclists shouted out Rezainejad’s name. When he turned around, they pumped five bullets into him and drove off.
The Associated Press has reported from Vienna that a former nuclear inspector with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told it Rezainejad was indeed working in Iran’s nuclear program and that he was one of those suspected by the IAEA of working on the actual building of a nuclear weapon.
The man told the AP that Rezainejad worked on a project to develop high-voltage switches, which are a key component of the trigger needed to set off a nuclear explosion. The AP said it was shown an abstract on such work dated three years ago and bearing the name of Daryoush Rezai-nejad as a co-author.
There was some speculation that Moslehi was insistent on Israel’s innocence because the murder of a third nuclear scientist by Israel would be a major embarrassment for the Intelligence Ministry and show it up as easily foiled by the Israelis. But a fourth scientist, Ahmadi-Roshan, was killed six months later and Moslehi had no problem blaming that on Israel.
After the first killing, the Intelligence Ministry started providing protection for all major nuclear scientists. One measure was to have the men driven to and from their offices by trained Intelligence Ministry officers so no one could plant a bomb next to the their parked car, as happened in the first killing.
But then the assassins started following the chauffeur-driven cars and planting magnetic bombs on the sides of those cars, foiling the Intelligence Ministry scheme. The Intelligence Ministry then said it was increasing security precautions. But Rezainejad was next gunned down in broad daylight.
In last Saturday’s killing, the victim was shot, not bombed. And he was not part of Iran’s nuclear program, which is clearly the main concern of Israel.