Darioush Rezaeinejad

Darioush Rezaeinejad (Persian: داریوش رضایی‌نژاد; c. 1976 – 23 July 2011; also Daryoush Rezaei or Dariush Rezaei-Nejad) was an Iranian shot dead in east Tehran by gunmen in July 2011 while he and his wife waited for their child outside a kindergarten.^[1] At the time of his killing he was described by officials as a "nuclear scientist" and an academic associated with Iran's atomic activities, but days later as a postgraduate electrical engineering masters student at Tehran's K.N.Toosi University of Technology, who was waiting to defend his thesis.^[2][3]

When news of the assassination broke, the speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani, suggested the United States and Israel had killed Rezaeinejad. A U.S. State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, stated, "We were not involved. Our sympathies are obviously with the family of the victim."^[4] Rezaeinejad is the fourth scientist "allegedly associated" with Iran's nuclear weapons program to have been killed by bomb, gunshot or poisoning since 2007.^[5]

Claim of Mossad responsibility

On August 2, 2011, German news website Spiegel Online published an article named "Mossad Behind Tehran Assassinations, Says Source", claiming receiving information from "an Israeli intelligence source", linking Israeli Mossad to the assassination of Darioush Rezaeinejad, described as Iranian nuclear scientist.^[6] The report was reprinted by several news agencies, yet without providing additional sources to confirm the information.^{[7][8][9][10][11][12]}

See also

• Shahram Amiri
• Masoud Alimohammadi
• Majid Shahriari
• Fereydoon Abbasi

References and notes

1. ^ "Iran: Scientist shot dead in Tehran". (BBC). 23 July 2011.
2. ^ "Iran denies assassinated academic worked on nuclear projects" | Saeed Kamali Dehghan | guardian.co.uk| 25 July 2011.
3. ^ "Photo of the Day". (funeral) | news.yahoo.com.
4. ^ "US denies killing scientist, presses Iran" (AFP). 25 July 2011.
5. ^ "Who Is Killing Iran's Nuclear Scientists?" | By MATTHEW COLE and MARK SCHONE | July 26, 2011.
6. ^ Ulrike Putz, "Mossad Behind Tehran Assassinations, Says Source", Spiegel Online, August 2, 2011.
7. ^ "'Mossad shot dead' Iranian scientist". (AFP). The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 August 2011.
8. ^ "Israel behind Iran academic hit: Spiegel". 1 August 2011.
9. ^ "Mossad behind murder of Iranian scientist". Middle East Online. 2 August 2011.
10. ^ "Der Spiegel: Israel killed Iranian". UPI. 2 August 2011.
11. ^ "Israel's Mossad behind killing of Iranian scientist: report". IBN Live. 2 August 2011.
12. ^ "Israel's new Mossad chief behind assassination of Iran nuclear scientist". Haaretz. 2 August 2011.

External links

• Iranian Nuclear Physicist Killed in Tehran; Mossad Blamed (International Business Times, 23 July 2011)
• (German) Iran: USA und Israel hinter Tod eines Wissenschaftlers (Reuters, 24 July 2011); with picture
• (French) Un physicien nucléaire iranien tué par balle à Téhéran (AFP, 24 July 2011)
• Iran says no suspect of student terror act arrested (ISNA, 26 July 2011)