Booby Trap

An Iranian nuclear scientist has been killed by bomb in a booby-trapped motorbike which exploded outside his home in a suburb of Tehran. “State television blamed ‘Zionists and American agents’. No specific motive was suggested for the attack, though it described Dr Ali-Mohammadi him as a ‘staunch supporter of the Islamic Revolution’. Windows in nearby buildings were shattered, and blood was left on the street. There was no word of other casualties. Dr Ali-Mohammadi was a professor at Tehran University, teaching courses in nuclear energy and writing on quantum physics. It was not immediately clear whether he was attached in any way to the country’s controversial nuclear programme, which has brought it into conflict with the West. A scientist attached to the programme, Shahram Amiri, a physicist for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, went missing while performing a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia last year. The Iranian authorities say he was kidnapped by the Saudi authorities and handed over to the Americans, though this is denied by Riyadh.”