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Bullet holes in the car the Iranian nuclear scientist was driving in
Photo: Uncredited / dpa
On Friday, it was the weekend in Iran, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and his wife wanted to visit their in-laws.
He was traveling in his black Nissan on the way to the relatives' villa in the small town of Absard, around 60 kilometers east of Tehran, according to the Iranian media.
His bodyguards drove behind him.
An empty Nissan was parked on the street in front of them.
A Hyundai with four people was waiting a little further across the street.
Fahrizadeh's murderer probably wanted the noose to be drawn around him there.
"It was like in a film," writes Javad Mogouyi, a documentary filmmaker for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on social media.
According to Mogouyi, an automatic machine gun was installed in the empty Nissan.
It fired as Fahrizadeh's car approached.
Fahrizadeh's column stopped, the scientist got out and was hit in the arms and legs, writes Mogouyi.
Suddenly the empty Nissan was blown up by remote ignition.
The four waiting men in the Hyundai immediately opened fire on Fahrizadeh and his bodyguards.
In addition, eight other men who suddenly appeared on four motorcycles shot, a total of twelve shooters.
Fahrizadeh was hit several times and died shortly after in hospital.
His wife survived injured.
"A twelve-person hit team needs at least 50 people"
The assassination of Fahrizadeh means a severe blow to the Iranian regime.
Not only does it lose the head of its nuclear program, it was also actually demonstrated: All twelve shooters were able to escape, and so far there are few useful leads to them.
The empty Nissan is said to be registered to an owner who has not lived in Iran for a long time;
The Iranian media said the seized weapon parts were of Israeli design.
In addition, the cameras on the street should not have worked at the time of the crime.
"A twelve-person hit team needs at least 50 people," the revolutionary guard Javad Mogouyi speculates about possible backers.
How could it be that such a large group operates undetected in Iran's capital and also knows exactly the family weekend planning of Iran's most important nuclear scientist?
The Iranian regime blames Israel for the crime.
And indeed there are some indications that support it.
Motive:
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already announced in 2018 that the name Fakhrizadeh should be remembered - a threat that is not very concealed.
Netanyahu's government benefits most from this fact: Iran's nuclear research program is unlikely to be affected much.
But Tehran is now embarrassed and unsettled - how deeply is its innermost apparatus penetrated by spies?
Skill:
It takes a lot of expertise and well-placed agents to carry out such a complicated attack in the middle of enemy territory.
The Mossad has already shown several times that it is capable of doing this in Iran, most recently this year with acts of sabotage against Iran's nuclear facilities and the murder of an al-Qaida terrorist in the middle of Tehran - probably at Washington's request.
In addition, the Mossad murdered a number of nuclear scientists in Iran years ago.
Confession:
There is no clear admission that this contradicts Israeli practice.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made hints at the weekend: He boasted of his successes over the past few days and added that he could not mention some.
Was the US government involved in the attack?
One can only speculate about this.
It is possible that Washington was informed in advance - especially since US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was just visiting Israel.
From the perspective of Donald Trump's US administration, Fahrizadeh's assassination should pose an acceptable risk:
It is a brazen provocation and cannot be justified under international law.
But Trump has so far cared little about such aspects, not even when the Iranian top general Qasem Soleimani was murdered in January.
In addition, it would have been a lot more serious if Israel had launched a direct military attack on Iran's nuclear program.
For Joe Biden's upcoming US administration, however, the deed is fatal: The next president must return to the negotiating table with Iran as soon as possible if he still wants to save the international nuclear deal with Iran.
This would require American courtesy and confidence-building measures - a targeted killing and possible hostile reactions from Iran make this difficult undertaking even more difficult.
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