Iran scientist's 'killer trained in Israel' by Mossad

Iran arrests 'spies and terrorists' linked with Israel's Mossad, seen as behind murder of nuclear scientist.

Middle East Online

By Hiedeh Farmani - TEHRAN

Mossad assassinations in the heart of Tehran The alleged killer of a top nuclear scientist who was murdered last year said he was trained in Israel by the Mossad spy agency, state-television reported on its website on Monday. Majid Jamali Fash, identified in the report as "a member of Mossad terrorist network and the main element" behind last year's assassination of nuclear scientist Masoud Ali Mohammadi, said he was trained by Israeli military officers at a base near Tel Aviv. "On a trip to Tel Aviv, I got acquainted with several senior Israeli officers in a base on a highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. There, I learned different things such as tailing, stalking and planting bombs under vehicles," Fash was quoted as saying on the website. He did not say when he had made the trip to Israel. Fash said he was briefed about Ali Mohammadi and "practised bombing in a base near Tel Aviv several times." "I was given a very precise model of Dr Ali Mohammadi's house and its whereabouts to be very well acquainted with the real situation of his assassination." The report said that the details of his interview will be released on Tuesday. Earlier on Monday, Iran said it had arrested "spies and terrorists" linked with Mossad who were behind Ali Mohammadi's killing. The intelligence ministry said in a statement carried by state television that Iran's security forces had "infiltrated" Israeli intelligence and obtained "important and sensitive information on Mossad spies and operations." "The main elements behind this terrorist crime (assassination) were arrested and a network of spies and terrorists linked to the Zionist regime was dismantled," it said. In January 2010 Ali Mohammadi, a particle physics professor at prestigious Tehran University, was killed in a bomb attack outside his home which Iran blamed on "mercenaries" in the pay of Israel and the United States. "Mossad... has had some European and non-European bases as well as bases in some neighbouring countries and used them to direct the unmanly assassination of Ali Mohammadi," the ministry said Monday. It added that further information about "Mossad's infiltration as well as the dismantling of its espionage networks and the plotting of our prominent scientist's assassination will be gradually revealed in due time." Iran has also blamed the intelligence services of Israel, the United States and Britain over bomb attacks against two top nuclear scientists on November 26. Majid Shahriari, a senior scientist involved in Iran's nuclear activities, was killed by a bomb placed against his car, while Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, another top nuclear expert, was wounded in a similar attack. Iran is under four sets of UN sanctions over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, the sensitive process which can be used to make nuclear fuel or, in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atom bomb. Western governments suspect Iran's nuclear programme masks a drive for an atomic weapons capability, an ambition Tehran has steadfastly denied. Israel and its ally the United States have not ruled out a military strike against Iran to stop its nuclear programme.