The New York Times: A killer robot was used to assassinate the top Iranian nuclear scientist, and US officials approved the plan

The New York Times revealed new details in the assassination of the prominent Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh late last year near Tehran, and said that a "killer robot" was used in the assassination, which Iran accused Israel of carrying out, noting that officials In the administration of former President Donald Trump approved the assassination plan.

Yesterday, Saturday, the newspaper published a lengthy report on its website based on interviews with US, Israeli and Iranian officials, including two intelligence officials familiar with the details of the operation's planning and implementation.

Fakhrizadeh - who is described as the father of Iran's nuclear program - was assassinated on November 27, 2020, when he was driving with his wife to their country home in Absard, which lies within the borders of Tehran province and includes luxury homes for Iranian officials.

The newspaper said that on the day of the assassination, the Iranian nuclear scientist drove his car from his home on the Caspian Sea towards Absard to spend the weekend there, despite the fact that Iranian intelligence warned him of a plot to liquidate him.

Given his position, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was supposed to move amid security protection, but the New York Times indicated that he ignored the warning, and preferred to live a normal life.

She explained that Israel had been trying to assassinate him for 14 years, and in 2009 halted at the last minute an operation to liquidate him in Tehran after the Iranians exposed it, noting that former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had spoken during a press conference in 2018 about Iran's progress on the nuclear level, Then he called for the name of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh to be remembered.

It also indicated that Israel assassinated 5 Iranian nuclear agents and wounded a sixth, as well as the first official in charge of the Iranian missile program and 16 members of his team.

killer robot

The American newspaper report stated that the assassination was carried out without any agents on the ground and by a killer robot capable of firing 600 rounds per minute, a new high-tech weapon equipped with artificial intelligence and multiple cameras operating via satellite.

He explained that the system used in the process was not different from its counterpart "Sentinel 20", which the Spanish company "Escribano" manufactures.

According to the sources that the New York Times spoke to, the machine gun, the robot and the rest of the accessories combined weighed about a ton, so the equipment was dismantled into small pieces, and then smuggled to Iran in different ways and at different times, and then secretly reassembled there.

The report stated that the robot was built to match the tank size of the Nissan Zamyad pickup truck commonly used in Iran, and cameras were installed in multiple directions on the truck to give the wheelhouse a complete picture not only of the target and its security details, but to the surrounding environment.

Finally, the truck was rigged up so that it could be remotely detonated and shredded after the killing was over in order to destroy all evidence, according to the New York Times.

In order to pinpoint the exact target, Iranian agents recruited by the Israeli Mossad placed the pickup truck on the side of Fakhrizadeh's road, pretending to be disabled, while it was fitted with a satellite camera that sent images directly to the operation's headquarters.

The report of the American newspaper confirmed that the whole process took less than a minute, during which only 15 bullets were fired, as Iranian investigators indicated that the bullets did not hit Fakhrizadeh's wife, who was sitting a few centimeters away from him.

The semi-official Fars news agency had reported days after the assassination that the operation lasted only about 3 minutes, and that there was no human element at the place of the assassination, noting that the nuclear scientist's car was shot with remote-controlled automatic weapons.

At that time, other Iranian media reported that the weapons used in the assassination were Israeli manufacture, and were controlled by satellites.

American support for the assassination

And the New York Times revealed in its report that preparations for the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh began after meetings between Israeli and American officials in late 2019 and early 2020.

The report stated that the meetings were attended by Mossad chief Yossi Cohen from the Israeli side, and from the American side by senior officials, including President Donald Trump, his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Gina Haspel.

The newspaper said that after Trump withdrew in 2018 from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and major powers, Israel wanted to resume its campaign against Iran's nuclear program, which it says includes a hidden aspect of making a nuclear weapon.

She pointed out that the head of the Mossad presented the Americans with a list of possible operations against Iranian targets, including the nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

The New York Times quoted an official who attended Israeli-American meetings that the American officials who were briefed on the Fakhrizadeh assassination plan supported it.