More details emerge on last week’s assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, reputed to be the head of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

On Sunday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that artificial intelligence and a satellite were used to control a machine gun that killed Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on November 27. (THE TIMES OF ISRAEL)

The machine gun, which was mounted on a Nissan pickup, “focused only on martyr Fakhrizadeh’s face in a way that his wife, despite being only 25 centimeters (10 inches) away, was not shot,” IRGC chief Rear Adml Ali Fadavi said, according to the Mehr News agency.

On November 27, Fakhrizadeh was riding in a car on the highway outside Teheran accompanied by 11 security guards when he was killed by a machine gun that “zoomed in” on his face and fired 13 rounds.

Iran’s Defence Minister, Amir Hatami, said Fakhrizadeh (pictured below) was his deputy and headed the Ministry’s Defence and Research and Innovation Organisation, specializing in “nuclear defense.”

Artificial intelligence and a satellite

According to Fadavi, the machine gun was controlled via a satellite and was equipped with an advanced camera and artificial intelligence to acquire the target and execute the firing.

He said Fakhrizadeh’s head of security threw himself on the scientist to protect him from the hail of bullets and took four bullets in the process.

Fadavi confirmed that there were “no terrorists at the scene.”

When initial reports emerged of the assassination, Iran’s state-run Press TV claimed that weapons made in Israel were found. The Fars news agency had reported that “a remote-controlled automatic machine gun” killed Fakrizadeh.

Iranian officials blamed archenemy Israel and the banned opposition group the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) for the killing, and have promised to avenge it.

Comment from Israeli security cabinet minister

According to The Jerusalem Post, Yoav Galant, an Israeli security cabinet minister, said he was “not aware” of whether the remote-operated targeting technologies described by Iran existed.

“What I see is a great deal of embarrassment on the Iranian side,” Galant told Army Radio. “It would appear that those who were responsible for his (Fakhrizadeh’s) security are now coming up with reasons for not having fulfilled that mission.”

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