Top Iranian Nuclear Scientist Killed in Ambush

Iranian nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, known as "Iran’s Robert Oppenheimer," was killed when a group of "unknown assailants" bombed and fired upon his car near a Tehran suburb on Friday. As of Friday afternoon, no group claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggested there were "serious indications of Israeli role" and called the attack an act of "state terror." Fakhrizadeh led Iran’s covert military nuclear program, which was disbanded in 2003, and has since led other Iranian nuclear research initiatives. In 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to “remember” Fakhrizadeh’s name during a presentation of stolen Iranian files. While there were no major left-right differences in coverage, coverage in outlets on all sides varied on mentioning Netanyahu’s 2018 statement and the assassination of Qassem Soleimani in January; calling the killing of Fakhrizadeh an "assassination"; and treating Israeli intelligence on the 2003 nuclear program as an allegation or a reported fact.