Daijiworld Media Network - Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv, Jun 14: In a dramatic escalation of its military offensive against Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on Saturday confirmed the targeted killing of nine top Iranian nuclear scientists. The coordinated airstrikes, launched early Friday, marked the initial phase of what Israel calls a decisive campaign to dismantle Tehran’s atomic capabilities.
The IDF declared the strikes a "critical blow" to Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, stating that all nine individuals were central figures in Iran’s clandestine weapons development program.
“These scientists weren’t just researchers—they were the brain trust behind Iran’s nuclear effort. With decades of combined expertise, they represented the core of Iran’s strategic threat,” the military said in a statement.
Among those eliminated were:
• Fereydoon Abbasi – Nuclear engineering specialist
• Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi – Renowned physicist
• Akbar Motalebi Zadeh – Chemical engineering expert
• Saeed Barji – Materials science authority
• Amir Hassan Fakhahi – Theoretical physicist
• Abd al-Hamid Minoushehr – Reactor physics expert
• Mansour Asgari – Senior physicist
• Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari Daryani – Nuclear systems engineer
• Ali Bakhouei Katirimi – Mechanical systems expert
Several of the scientists were described as intellectual successors to Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the influential Iranian nuclear architect assassinated in 2020.
The IDF reported that these airstrikes were not spontaneous but the result of a deeply covert, multi-year intelligence operation that intensified over the past 12 months.
“Dozens of IDF intelligence specialists have been involved in long-term surveillance and data analysis to track and verify the movements and roles of these individuals,” the statement revealed.
The same wave of strikes that took out the scientists also reportedly neutralized multiple high-ranking Iranian military officials. The IDF emphasized that the precision attacks were designed to decapitate Iran’s nuclear brain trust and disrupt its weapons program beyond repair.
The developments have sent ripples across the international security landscape, raising the stakes in an already volatile regional standoff.