The number of Iranian nuclear scientists killed in a series of covert Israeli operations has climbed to 10, following the assassination of Dr. Seyed Isar Tabatabaei Qomsheh and his wife at their residence in Tehran on Saturday.
Dr. Tabatabaei, a prominent physicist affiliated with Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, was recognized as one of the foremost experts in reactor physics. He and his wife were reportedly killed in a targeted strike at their private residence in the early hours of the morning. While Iranian authorities have confirmed both deaths, they have not publicly disclosed the method of the attack.
This latest killing follows “Operation Narnia,” a coordinated Israeli operation earlier this week that simultaneously eliminated nine senior Iranian nuclear scientists at their respective homes.
According to sources cited in Iranian state-affiliated outlets, the strike was executed using what Israeli officials have vaguely described as a “classified” or “special” weapon.
The broader campaign, reportedly part of Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion,” appears to echo the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was killed outside Tehran in a remote-controlled ambush widely attributed to Israeli intelligence services.
While there has been no official Israeli confirmation of these strikes, senior Israeli security officials, speaking to international media anonymously, have hinted that the operations were intended to “disrupt Iran’s irreversible nuclear progress.” They further claimed that the targeted individuals were involved in sensitive projects that posed a “direct threat” to Israel’s security.
