Space-age gun killed Iran nuke scientist

A satellite-controlled machine gun with “artificial ­intelligence” was used in last month’s assassination of a top ­nuclear scientist in Iran.

Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Picture: AFP

A satellite-controlled machine gun with “artificial ­intelligence” was used in last month’s assassination of a top ­nuclear scientist in Iran, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards has told local media.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was driving on a highway outside the capital Tehran with a security detail of 11 guards on November 27 when the machine gun “zoomed in” on his face and fired 13 rounds, rear admiral Ali Fadavi said.

The machine gun was mounted on a ute and “focused only on martyr Fakhrizadeh’s face in a way that his wife, despite being only 25cm away, was not shot”, Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.

It was being “controlled online” via a satellite and used an “advanced camera and artificial intelligence” to make the target.

Admiral Fadavi said Fakhrizadeh’s head of security took four bullets “as he threw himself” on the scientist and that there were “no terrorists at the scene”.

Iranian authorities have blamed arch foe Israel and the exiled opposition group the ­People’s Mujahedeen of Iran for the assassination.

State-run Press TV had previously said “made in Israel” weapons were found at the scene.

Various accounts of the scientist’s death have emerged since the attack, with the defence ministry initially saying he was caught in a firefight with his bodyguards, while Fars news agency claimed “a remote-controlled automatic machine gun” killed him, without citing any sources.

According to Iranian Defence Minister Amir Hatami, Fakhrizadeh was one of his deputies and headed the ministry’s Defence and Research and Innovation Organisation, focusing on the field of “nuclear ­defence”.

AFP