Nine senior scientists and experts in the Iranian nuclear project killed, IDF says
The strike that killed the Islamic Republic officials was possible due to intelligence gathered by the IDF's Intelligence Branch.
Nine senior scientists and experts in the Iranian nuclear project were killed by the IDF, the military announced on Saturday afternoon.
Two of the nine were advancing the Islamic Republic's agenda to obtain nuclear weapons, the IDF added.
The strike that killed the Islamic Republic officials was possible due to intelligence gathered by the IDF's Intelligence Directorate.
The scientists killed had decades of cumulative experience in the development of nuclear weapons. The scientists include Fereydoun Abbasi and Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari Daryani, experts in nuclear engineering; Akbar Motalebi Zadeh, an expert in chemical engineering; Saeed Barji, a materials engineering expert; physics experts Mohammad Mahdi Tehranshi, Mansour Asgari, and Amir Hassan Fakhahi; Abd al-Hamid Minoushehr, a reactor physics expert; and Ali Bakhouei Katirimi, a mechanics expert.
Video of nuclear engineering expert Fereydoun Abbasi from May 2025, in which he testifies about the Iranian regime’s capabilities to advance nuclear weapons development (credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
Statements by the Intelligence Directorate head the day before
Maj.-Gen. Shlomi Binder, head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, said the day before that Israel is entering an “existential campaign” against Iran and they are operating at the highest level of readiness to disrupt Tehran’s nuclear and missile programs.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.
