Like in the action movie: The Elimination That Confused and Astonished the World | Israel today

The confusion on Iran's social media and media in the afternoon following the assassination of Muhsin Fahrizadeh, head of Tehran's military nuclear program, spawned several stories that sounded like they were taken from a Hollywood action movie.

A shootout between an assassin squad and the senior security guards, a sniper waiting for a nearby building or a powerful remote-activated explosive device - the various versions spread at a dizzying pace. A few days after the assassination, which was a scathing embarrassment to Iran's Revolutionary Guards and intelligence services, a bizarre story spread about a remotely activated assassinating robot that killed the senior scientist with an accurate and deadly barrage of shots.

Initially, the bizarre story, which was circulated in groups affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, was mostly ridiculed, and cataloged in the West as an attempt to divert fire from the immense embarrassment caused by the assassination, which took place at the entrance to a regime regime resort town near the Iranian capital.

But as the months passed, more and more evidence emerged that verified the "unfounded" version of events, until in September a comprehensive article in the New York Times described how a 1,500-mile-long weapon system carried out the assassination near the town of Absurd.

According to the investigation, the Mossad had already tried to eliminate Fahrizadeh in 2009, but the plan was abandoned due to operational difficulties.

Fahrizadeh was placed at the top of Israel's assassination list from 2007 and was a major target for the head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, even before he took office.

Despite allegations directly linking Israel to the operation, Iran itself has only implicitly blamed Israel for the assassination, and Jerusalem of course has maintained complete ambiguity regarding the unprecedented operation.

Lethal cameras

The versions that emerge from the publications that have been circulating since the assassination sound like science fiction.

The team that planned and organized the assassination had already left Iran by the time the robot was activated, while Fahrizadeh's vehicle was traveling on the road near the entrance to the absurd.

As the scientist and his wife drove the car, a machine-gun with artificial intelligence, which used a variety of cameras of various kinds, capable of firing more than 600 bullets per minute, opened fire with a short burst of fire at the vehicle.

The machine-gun, activated by a satellite, destroyed itself after the initial fire, leaving investigators who arrived at the scene with only tiny shards of evidence.

The reports of the assassination were approved by a number of senior Israeli, Iranian and American officials, all of whom described the same pattern.

The head of Iran's nuclear program will be exiled, Muhsin Fahrizda,

The New York Times argued that the success of the innovative and daring operation was made possible, in part, by Iranian intelligence failures - and the fatalism of Fahrizadeh himself, who refused to take any steps to make himself a more difficult target for assassination.

At the same time, it was argued that the elimination was a "debut" of a sophisticated and impressive weapons system, which in the future may overwhelm systems and operations of special forces around the world.

The ability to fire accurately, on a moving target, when the operator is at a huge distance from the scene of the incident, has enormous potential for armies, intelligence agencies and assassins around the world.

Now that it has been proven possible, it is likely that most of them will try to develop similar capabilities.

Thus the elimination of the man who played the Iranian threat to Israel itself became a landmark in the history of military technology.

Fascinating heritage

A brilliant scientist, a devout Muslim, a supporter of the Islamic Revolution in Iran from the beginning and a lover of Persian poetry - the figure of Fahrizadeh towered over Iran's military nuclear project, a country that repeatedly denies its interest in developing nuclear weapons.

Fahrizadeh has been the head of the Advanced Technology Use Department since 2007, where the cover for an organization designed to place Iran in place is all it takes to develop a nuclear warhead that could, in due course, be placed on one of Tehran's ballistic missiles.

Approaching the bomb

The bomb development project earned the enigmatic name "Project 111" and used a variety of industrial facilities, some secret and protected and others well camouflaged in Iran's various industries, to produce the fissile material, uranium metal and complex explosives needed to make nuclear bombs.

The degree of success of Fahrizadeh is well evident in the field.

About two weeks ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran holds a significant amount of enriched uranium to 60 percent.

This level of enrichment allows for a relatively short process of refining to the level needed to produce nuclear weapons, allowing Iran to explode a nuclear bomb in a short time.

Iranian nuclear facility, Photo: AFP

Iran admitted last week that holding no less than 25 kg of uranium enriched to 60 percent, and exposure has been shown that it produces consistently well other components needed to continue to pursue.

While the elimination of Fhrizadh was an example of excellent intelligence work, technology and work space unusual in doubt if hit, along with other attacks on Iranian nuclear program, go substantially the Tehran bomb.

on Monday it was reported that the United States appealed several times to Israel and said that the attacks on Iran is not only ineffective, but let Iranians need to improve and refine the systems being rebuilt and learn to anticipate sophisticated attacks on their facilities.

It seems that although the serpent head of the Iranian nuclear threat was decapitated that fateful afternoon in absurdity, the body left behind by Fahrizadeh continues to shed its skin, upgrade and become stronger all the time.

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