Iran Says Scientist Was Killed by Satellite-controlled Machine Gun
ARY News & Agence France-Presse
(December 7, 2020) — A satellite-controlled machine gun with “artificial intelligence” was used in last week’s assassination of a top nuclear scientist in Iran, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards told local media Sunday.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was driving on a highway outside Iran’s capital Tehran with a security detail of 11 Guards on November 27, when the machine gun “zoomed in” on his face and fired 13 rounds, said rear-admiral Ali Fadavi.
The machine gun was mounted on a Nissan pickup and “focused only on martyr Fakhrizadeh’s face in a way that his wife, despite being only 25 centimetres (10 inches) away, was not shot,” Mehr News Agency quoted him as saying.
It was being “controlled online” via a satellite and used an “advanced camera and artificial intelligence” to make the target, he added.
Fadavi said that Fakhrizadeh’s head of security took four bullets “as he threw himself” on the scientist and that there were “no terrorists at the scene.”
Iranian authorities have blamed arch foe Israel and the exiled opposition group the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) for the assassination.
State-run Press TV had previously said “made in Israel” weapons were found at the scene.
Various accounts of the scientist’s death have emerged since the attack, with the defense ministry initially saying he was caught in a firefight with his bodyguards, while Fars News Agency claimed “a remote controlled automatic machine gun” killed him, without citing any sources.
According to Iran’s defense minister, Amir Hatami, Fakhrizadeh was one of his deputies and headed the ministry’s Defence and Research and Innovation Organization, focusing on the field of “nuclear defense.”
Iran Says ‘Smart satellite-controlled Machine Gun’ Killed Top Nuclear Scientist
Parisa Hafezi and Dan Williams / Reuters
DUBAI (December 7, 2020) — The killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist last month was carried out remotely with artificial intelligence and a machine gun equipped with a “satellite-controlled smart system,” Tasnim news agency quoted a senior commander as saying.
Iran has blamed Israel for the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was seen by Western intelligence services as the mastermind of a covert Iranian programme to develop nuclear weapons capability. Tehran has long denied any such ambition.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the killing, and one of its officials suggested that the Tasnim report of the tactics used was a face-saving gambit by Iran.
In the past, however, Israel has acknowledged pursuing covert, intelligence-gathering operations against the nuclear programme of its arch-enemy.
The Islamic Republic has given contradictory details of Fakhrizadeh’s death in a daytime Nov. 27 ambush on his car on a highway near Tehran.
“No terrorists were present on the ground… Martyr Fakhrizadeh was driving when a weapon, using an advanced camera, zoomed in on him,” Tasnim, a semi-official agency, quoted Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, as saying in a ceremony on Sunday.
“The machine gun was placed on a pick-up truck and was controlled by a satellite.”
Security Gaps
Fadavi spoke after Iranian authorities said they had found “clues about the assassins”, though they have yet to announce any arrests. Shortly after Fakhrizadeh was killed, witnesses told state television that a truck had exploded before a group of gunmen opened fire on his car.
Last week Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, said the killing was carried out with “electronic devices” with no people on the ground.
Experts and officials told Reuters last week Fakhrizadeh’s killing exposed security gaps that suggest its security forces may have been infiltrated and that the Islamic Republic was vulnerable to further attacks.
“Some 13 shots were fired at martyr Fakhrizadeh with a machine gun controlled by satellite… During the operation artificial intelligence and face recognition were used,” Fadavi said. “His wife, sitting 25 centimetres away from him in the same car, was not injured.”
Yoav Galant, an Israeli security cabinet minister, said he was “not aware” of whether the remote-operated targeting technologies described in the Iranian accounts existed.
“What I see is a great deal of embarassment on the Iranian side,” Galant, a former naval commando and deputy chief of Israel’s military, told Army Radio. “It would appear that those who were responsible for his (Fakhrizadeh’s) security are now coming up with reasons for not having fulfilled that mission.”
Fakhrizadeh, identified by Israel as a prime player in what it says is a continuing Iranian quest for a nuclear weapon, was the fifth Iranian nuclear scientist killed in targeted attacks since 2010 inside Iran, and the second slaying of a high-ranking Iranian official in 2020.
The commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in January. Tehran retaliated by firing missiles at US military targets in Iraq.
Iran Says ‘Smart Satellite’ Killed Top Scientist
(December 7, 2020) — The killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist last month was aided by artificial intelligence, and a “satellite-controlled smart system” remotely operating a machine gun mounted on the back of a pick-up truck. That’s reportedly according to a senior military commander in the country.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Ali Fadavi of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as saying on Sunday (December 6) that no terrorists were on the ground as Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was gunned down in his car. Iran has blamed Israel and a foreign-based opposition group for the assassination, while Israel has neither confirmed or denied the allegation.
The Islamic Republic has given contradictory details since Fakhrizadeh’s death. His car is said to have been ambushed on a highway near Tehran on November 27. Israeli security cabinet minister Yoav Galant even said he was “not aware” such technologies described in the Iranian accounts existed. But the Iranian commander, Fadavi, said “during the operation artificial intelligence and face recognition were used,” and cited that Fakhrizadeh’s wife who was also in the car was not injured. He’d been speaking after Iranian authorities said they had found “clues about the assassins,” though they have yet to announce any arrests.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
