Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the head of Iran's military nuclear program who was assassinated in November, was gunned down by Israeli Mossad agents using a one-ton automated gun that was smuggled into Iran piece by piece over an eight-month period, the Jewish Chronicle reported Wednesday.
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The team that assassinated Fakhrizadeh consisted of at least 20 Israeli and Iranian nationals, who deployed to Iran last March, the UK-based weekly reported.
The regime in Tehran has assessed it will take at least six years for Fakhrizadeh's replacement to be able to fully perform the job, intelligence sources told the Jewish Chronicle.
Analysts in Israel, meanwhile, believe Fakhrizadeh's death has extended the period of time it would take Iran to achieve a bomb from about three-and-a-half months to two years, with senior intelligence figures privately putting the time frame as high as five years, the report said.
Fakhrizadeh was hit by 13 bullets while traveling with his wife and 12-man security detail in Absard, near Tehran, on November 27 last year.
Neither his wife nor any of his bodyguards were harmed in the attack, which was carried out using a "hyper-accurate automated weapon in order to protect civilians from collateral damage," the report said. The sophisticated weapon was assembled on the back of a Nissan pickup truck and was operated via remote-control by spotters tracking the nuclear scientist.
"It was the most elegant way to make sure that the target will be hit, and only him," a source told the Jewish Chronicle.
The gun was reportedly detonated after the attack to erase the evidence. Additionally, the explosion added to the confusion during the attack and possibly helped the team members escape Iran safely.
Iran, however, said Tuesday it suspects that a member of the military was involved in the attack.
Israel acted alone, according to the source quoted in the report, but did notify the US. He said it was "not to the level of asking for the green light, more like checking the water temperature. Just like they had notified us before killing [Iranian General Qassem] Soleimani."
The operation succeeded partly because Iranian security services were "too busy watching suspected political dissenters," sources told the paper.
Jacob Nagel, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told the Jewish Chronicle: "The Mossad had documents proving that Fakhrizadeh had worked on several nuclear warheads, each one able to cause five Hiroshimas.
"He was serious. He still meant to do what he planned. So someone decided that he had had enough time on earth."
Iran has alleged that "advanced satellite-controlled technological tools" were used in the assassination.
The Islamic republic has warned Israel that it should "expect retaliation."
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