Israel took out the entire senior command of Iran's Islamic Republic's Guards Corp (IRGC) last Friday during the opening strike of its 'Operation Rising Lion'. Iran lost many advisors to its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but what hurt more was how the country lost key individuals involved in Iran’s nuclear programme, in a huge setback to its nuclear programme.
Now Israel has released the details of 'Operation Narnia', a mission targeting Iran’s nuclear scientists. As part of the mission, Israel killed 10 nuclear scientists, nine of who were simultaneously killed, according to Channel 9.
The nuclear scientists were killed using a special weapon whose details were barred from publication, the report added.
It was Israel's Intelligence Directorate that came up with the precise plan to kill the top 10 nuclear scientists, many of who were students and successors of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, often regarded as the father of Iran’s nuclear programme. The mastermind behind 'Project Amad', Iran's covert effort to build a nuclear bomb in the early 2000s, Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in 2020 by a robotic sniper, controlled allegedly by Israel.
In an interview with RT, Before his martyrdom, the Iranian scientist said, "We've handed over our work to the next generation of Nuclear Scientists."
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Israel reportedly created a hit list of the scientists last November. Israeli intelligence officials categorised Iran’s nuclear scientists into four levels, ranking them from highest to lowest priority. The scientists with the most military expertise and the greatest difficulty in replacing them were ranked highest, according to reports.
The plan was devised to target them simultaneously so that there wouldn't be time for anyone to top off those being targeted. All 10 were at their homes sleeping when Israel killed them, a senior Israeli official tells Channel 12. Israel decided to target them at home because many believed they were safe at home as all previously assassinated nuclear scientists were killed while heading to their cars after work.
The deceased scientists include Fereydoun Abbasi, a nuclear engineering expert, Mohammad Mahdi Tehranchi, a physics expert, Akbar Matlali Zadeh, a chemical engineering expert, Saeed Beraji, a materials engineering expert, Amir Hassan Faqahi, a physics expert, Abd al-Hamid Minushahr, a reactor physics expert, Mansour Asgari, a physics expert, Ahmad Reza Davalparki Daryani, a nuclear engineering expert, and Ali Bakhayi Kathehremi, a mechanical expert.