Science fiction? Remote-controlled robot killed Fakhrizadeh, Iran claims

Iran’s state news agency claims top nuclear scientist assassinated by remote-controlled killer robot.

By Benjamin Kerstein, The Algemeiner

Following the assassination on Friday of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, the country’s state media on Sunday came out with an unusual narrative of the event akin to a science-fiction movie, with robotic remote-controlled assassins gunning down their target.

According to the Fars news agency, citing their political correspondent, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was driving near Tehran in a bulletproof car, with a large protective team alongside in three other vehicles.

At one point, gunshots struck the car, at which point Fakhrizadeh exited the vehicle, thinking he might have collided with something or had engine trouble.

At that moment, a remote-controlled machine gun fired a volley of bullets at him from a Nissan nearby. He was struck twice in the side and once in the back, severing his spinal cord.

One of the bodyguards then threw himself on top of Fakhrizadeh and was also shot several times. Shortly after, the Nissan exploded.

Fakhrizadeh was evacuated to a nearby clinic and then by helicopter to a Tehran hospital, where — as Fars puts it — he was “martyred,” that is, died.

Fars claims that the entire assassination was done by robots, with no actual human beings present on the hit team.

There is no confirmation of the Fars version of events, and most reports have indicated that, while a car bomb was involved and Fakhrizadeh was killed by gunfire, the assassination was carried out by actual human beings.

Assassinationiran nuclear programMohsen Fakhrizadeh