The military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to "strike as thunder at the killers of this oppressed martyr". 'REMEMBER THAT NAME'Fakhrizadeh had no public profile, but was thought to have headed what the U.N. nuclear watchdog and US intelligence services believe was a coordinated nuclear weapons programme in Iran, shelved in 2003. He was the only Iranian scientist named in the International Atomic Energy Agency's 2015 "final assessment" of open questions about Iran's nuclear programme. The IAEA's report said he oversaw activities "in support of a possible military dimension to (Iran's) nuclear programme". Michael Mulroy, a senior Pentagon official earlier during Trump's administration, said Fakhrizadeh's killing would set back Iran's nuclear programme and that alert levels should be raised immediately in countries where Iran could retaliate.

Source: Otago Daily Times November 27, 2020 22:07 UTC