Iranian media report that Daryoosh Rezainejad, the man assassinated earlier today in Tehran, was not a nuclear scientist as earlier suggested, but rather a graduate student in the electronics department of Khajeh Nasireddin Toosi University in Tehran.
Unidentified individuals shot at Daryoosh Rezainejad and his family after the couple had picked up their child at a daycare in Tehran, IRNA reports. The 35-year-old was killed in the attack, IRNA adds, while his wife is being treated for sustained injuries in hospital.
Earlier reports by Mehr News Agency had indicated that Rezainejad was a nuclear scientist and a member of Iran’s Nuclear Energy Organization.
In December of 2009, Mossoud Ali-Mohammadi, a physics professor at Tehran University, was assassinated in a bomb explosion near his home.
Last November in Tehram, in two separate explosions on the same day, two other physics professors were the target of assassination attempts. Majid Shahriyari was killed but Fereydoon Abbasi survived.
Iran has accused the U.S. and Israeli intelligence forces of being involved in these assassination operations. The U.S. has denied the allegations.
In December, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence announced that it had arrested the perpetrators of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi’s assassination and contended that it had dismantled the "network of spies and terrorists linked to Israel" responsible for the attacks.
