"No terrorists were present on the ground ... Martyr [Mohsen] Fakhrizadeh was driving when a weapon, using an advanced camera, zoomed in on him."

"[The machine gun was mounted on a Nissan pickup and] focused only on martyr Fakhrizadeh’s face in a way that his wife, despite being only 25 centimeters [10 inches] away, was not shot."

"[It was being] controlled online [via a satellite and used an] advanced camera and artificial intelligence [to make the target]."

"[Fakhrizadeh’s head of security took four bullets] as he threw himself [on the scientist, and there were] no terrorists at the scene."

Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, deputy commander, Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran 

"The perpetrators of this assassination, some of whom have been identified and even arrested by the security services, will not escape justice."

"Were the Zionists [Israel] able to do this alone and without the cooperation of, for example, the American [intelligence] service or another service? They certainly could not do that."

"[There were various pieces of evidence] about those who planned and carried out the assassination that prove the Zionists [Israelis] were involved. But whether the Zionists did so on their own and without the co-operation of, for example, the American [intelligence] service or another service? For sure, they could not have done so on their own."

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iranian Parliamentary adviser

Military personnel stand near the flag-draped coffin of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, during a funeral ceremony in Tehran, Iran, November 30, 2020. (Iranian Defense Ministry via AP)

 

Little wonder Iranians despair, yet muster the courage to gather in protest, despite the peril, knowing that some among them will not be returning home alive. They despair over their living conditions, the increasing level of poverty under sanctions imposed on their country because of Tehran's policies. They are irate that their theocratic rulers are more invested in delivering oil to Venezuela than to Iranians in need. They are furious at the funding of Hezbollah, the cost to the Iranian Republic of posting the al Quds division of the IRGC in Syria and Iraq, while Iranians are desperate for the necessities of life.

The goal of the current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is to continue the legacy direction of his predecessor the Islamic revolutionary Ayatollah Khomeini, to dominate the world of Islam as Shi'a superiors over the majority Sunni Muslim sect interpreted as a threat by Iran's Arab Muslim neighbours in the Middle East. The vicious threat of the Islamic Republic's nuclear aspirations has created a sectarian bloc in a rivalry between Sunni and Shi'a where Saudi Arabia, the custodian of the two holiest sites in Islam, Mecca and Medina, is challenged by Persian Iran which feels entitled to that role.

Above all, Tehran appears incapable of comprehending that in visibly and audibly, publicly and constantly threatening the existence of the State of Israel, supporting and directing its proxy militias in Lebanon and Gaza ensures that Jerusalem and its ultra-competent intelligence agencies gain the experience and the willing cooperation of covert intelligence-gathering and accomplices in missions to control Tehran's ambitions and to contain them. Jews have long since been victims, they know now how, when and where to take action to contain those eager to eradicate them from the state of the living.

The scene where Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in Absard, a small city just east of the capital Tehran, Iran, November 27, 2020. (The semi-official Fars News Agency via AP)

Long identified as the scientific nuclear specialist who was the lynchpin of the Iranian nuclear program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, like others in his field of endeavour before him, was marked for extinction. In Iranian defence minister Amir Hatami's words, the scientist was one of his deputies, heading the ministry's Defense and Research and Innovation Organization whose focus was the field of "nuclear defense". He was as well a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an integral part of the Iranian government, and a recognized terrorist organization.

Immediately following Fakhrizadeh's unfortunate death, the defense ministry stated that their man had been killed in a shootout that took place between his bodyguards and several gunmen who had ambushed the motorcade just outside Tehran on its journey from a posh suburb. There were witnesses who credibly informed state media that a truck had exploded before a group of men with guns opened fire on the car in which Fakhrizadeh was being driven, that it appeared he exited the car in the belief it had struck something. In their rendition of the event, the man was outside the car when he was hit by gunfire.

 

The major suspect in the smoothly executed assassination was, of course, Israeli operatives working under orders from Mossad. Witnesses claimed that they saw the gunmen make their escape. Iranian authorities at first repeated the story of the truck, the bomb, the gunmen emerging to exchange fire with the eleven men guarding the nuclear scientist. And then, re-thinking the situation, that they were very well aware that their chief nuclear scientist would be in Israeli crosshairs, and surrounding him with protective guards, their best laid plans went awry by a superior intelligence.

A realization which gave life to an alternate explanation, hauling in the exiled opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) for the assassination. Revenge was vowed, ostensible members of the group arrested, and it can be fairly well assured that a trial such as is routine in asserting justice anywhere else in the world  will not be taking place. Iran, which vengefully practices a wholesale capital punishment program for issues of all kinds requiring the ultimate punishment, will simply extinguish a few more lives.

And the more palatable story for Tehran's stricken pride is that a satellite-controlled machine gun with 'artificial intelligence' had been utilized in the assassination. According to the deputy commander of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards, Rear-Admiral Fadavi, Fakhrizadeh was driving on a highway outside the capital of Iran with his 11-member Guard on November 27, when suddenly the machine gun 'zoomed in' on the nuclear scientist's face, firing 13 rounds. Scrupulously avoiding harming his wife, who sat  beside him.

How diabolical, a satellite-controlled machine gun paired with artificial intelligence and an advanced camera.  The death of Iran's top nuclear scientist achieved remotely with artificial intelligence and a machine gun equipped with a 'satellite-controlled smart system'. Those clever Israelis and their dastardly determination to outwit those who threaten and plot their extermination....

Iranian mourners attend burial ceremony of slain nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh at Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine in northern Tehran on 30 November (AFP/File photo)