Iranian scientist killed in Tehran car bomb blast

Jan 11, 2012, 13:13 GMT

Tehran - An Iranian chemistry scientist was killed in a car bomb explosion in Tehran on Wednesday, official sources said, in the latest in a series of apparent attacks on Iranian scientists linked to the country's disputed nuclear programme.

A motorcyclist attached a magnetic bomb to the car of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. His driver, Reza Qashqaei, died in hospital after an emergency operation, while another seriously wounded passenger was undergoing surgery, the Fars news agency reported.

A spokesman for Tehran's Sharif University said Roshan was a chemistry graduate and until now a lecturer at the university, and had been working on scientific projects.

Fars reported that Roshan was a commercial deputy of the uranium enrichment site of Natanz in central Iran. There was no official confirmation of this report, but the Iranian Atomic Organization indicated Roshan had been linked to the nuclear industry.

The government and parliament condemned the attack and accused 'imperialistic powers,' namely Israel and the United States, of being involved.

'The enemies of Iran should know that with such terrorist acts, they cannot stop Iran's scientific progress,' said Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, in a statement quoted by the ISNA news agency.

'The agents of the imperialistic powers have been involved in this assassination,' Rahimi added.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton denied any involvement by the United States with violent acts inside Iran, but did not specifically mention Wednesday's bombing or Iran's charges. She was speaking to reporters after meeting with Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani.

'I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran,' she said.

The Iranian Atomic Organization said in a statement that Roshan was 'one of the servants of the nuclear industry,' but did not clarify his position.

'The path selected by the courageous people of Iran is a way of no return and such devilish acts by the US and Israel on our scientist will not have the least of impact on this path,' said the organization's statement, ISNA reported.

'The daily progress of Iran's nuclear activities are a small present for martyrs like Roshan,' the statement added.

Safar Ali Bratloo, a deputy in the Tehran governor's office, compared the attack to those in 2010 on three Iranian scientists who worked on nuclear projects.

Two Iranian nuclear scientists, Majid Shahriari and Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, were killed in 2010. Another assassination attempt, on Fereydoun Abbasi, failed.

After the attempt on his life, Abbasi was appointed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as his deputy and chief of the Iranian Atomic Organization.

Bratloo accused Israeli agents of being linked to Wednesday's killings, saying, 'The Zionists are trying to intimidate the people by these acts into not attending the elections.'

Iranian parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 2.