The killings follow a wave of Israeli airstrikes on Friday that targeted strategic locations in Tehran.
Israel Kills 3 More Iranian Nuclear Scientists in Airstrikes; Death Toll Rises to 9. Tensions between Iran and Israel reached a new boiling point on Saturday after Iranian media reported the killing of three additional nuclear scientists in Israeli airstrikes, raising the total number of Iranian scientists slain in recent days to nine.
According to Iran’s state television and the semi-official Tasnim News Agency, the latest victims were identified as Ali Bakhouei Karimi, a mechanical engineer; Mansour Asgari, a physicist; and Saeed Borji, a materials engineer. All three were regarded as key contributors to Iran’s nuclear research program and were killed in what Iranian authorities described as “terrorist attacks by the Zionist regime.”
The killings follow a wave of Israeli airstrikes on Friday that targeted strategic locations in Tehran. Among the victims of those earlier attacks were six high-ranking nuclear scientists and three senior military officials, marking one of the deadliest strikes on Iran’s scientific and defense leadership in recent history.
The six scientists previously confirmed killed include:
- Abdolhamid Minoochehr
- Ahmad Reza Zolfaqari
- Seyed Amir Hossein Feqhi (deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran)
- Matlabizadeh (killed along with his wife)
- Mohammad Mahdi Tehranchi
- Fereydoon Abbasi
Friday’s strikes also claimed the lives of three top Iranian military leaders:
- Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces
- Major General Hossein Salami, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
- Major General Gholam Ali Rashid, head of Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters
Iranian officials have condemned the assassinations as an act of state terrorism. In an official statement, a government spokesperson said, “These repeated aggressions reflect the Zionist regime’s fear and frustration over Iran’s peaceful scientific progress.”
Following the escalation, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei warned of severe consequences for Israel.
“With this crime, the Zionist regime has prepared for itself a bitter, painful fate, which it will definitely see,” he declared in a strongly worded statement.
The international community has expressed growing concern over the rising hostilities between the two adversaries, which now threaten to spiral into a broader regional conflict.
