2010–2012 Iran Nuclear Scientist Assassinations

Between January 2010 and January 2012, a covert campaign of targeted killings struck Iranian nuclear scientists in Tehran. Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a quantum-field-theory physicist at the University of Tehran, was killed on 12 January 2010 by a remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle outside his home. On 29 November 2010, Majid Shahriari was killed by a magnetic bomb attached to his car; in a simultaneous attack, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani survived a similar device. On 23 July 2011, Daryoush Rezaei, an electrical-engineering PhD student at K. N. Toosi University of Technology, was shot dead by motorcycle-riding gunmen outside his home. On 11 January 2012, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, deputy director of commerce at the Natanz enrichment facility, was killed by a magnetic bomb placed on his car. The campaign was widely attributed to Israeli intelligence (Mossad), with possible US knowledge. Iran accused the United States and Israel. The assassinations intensified domestic support for the nuclear programme and hardened Iran's negotiating posture.