11 family members killed alongside Iranian nuclear scientist in Israeli hit: Report

Iranian nuclear scientist Sedighi Saber was among 11 members of his family killed in an Israeli assassination raid just hours before the Iran-Israel ceasefire came into force late on Monday (June 23). Iran's English-language station Press TV said the attack occurred in Astaneh Ashrafieh, a northern Iranian city along the Caspian Sea. A family picture of the scientist released by Press TV showed the family members who were killed, including elderly citizens, some children and women. The Israeli regime targeted at least 14 Iranian nuclear scientists during its 12-day attack on the nation, as per reports.

As Israel launched Operation Rising Lion against Iran, targeting its nuclear facilities, top military officials, and nuclear scientists in the past few weeks, another operation has come into light. Israel also launched Operation Narnia, killing 10 Iranian nuclear scientists as a part of the ongoing war.

The Iranian nuclear scientists were killed while they were sleeping in their homes, Channel 12 reported.

Israel’s Operation Rising Lion eliminated many senior officials in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and key individuals involved in Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel Defence Forces (IDF) targeted the scientists who had the most military expertise and the greatest difficulty in replacing them. Then, Israel compiled a list of those scientists, ready for execution at command. The strike successfully targeted nuclear scientists with the help of the Intelligence Directorate’s precise intelligence. Israel used a “special weapon” to eliminate these scientists, according to Channel 9 and Channel 12 reports. While the specifics of this have been barred from publication. Those scientists were the key figures in Iran’s nuclear program, with years of experience in nuclear weapons development.

Out of those 10 scientists, three of the most known were Fereydoun Abbasi, Mohammad Mahdi Tehranchi, and Akbar Matlali Zadeh. Notably, many of those scientists were successors of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was popularly known as the father of Iran’s nuclear program. Fakhrizadeh himself was killed in 2020, by a robotic sniper, allegedly planned by Israel.