Senior Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s assassination in November was carried out by a Mossad team via a one-ton remote-controlled gun that had been smuggled into Iran in pieces, the London-based Jewish Chronicle (JC) reported on Wednesday.

The 20 members of the “hit-team,” comprised of both Israeli and Iranian nationals, prepared for the fateful moment over eight months of “painstaking surveillance.”

The report said it has confirmed through “intelligence sources” that the Mossad was behind the hit, which was carried out by mounting the one-ton gun on a Nissan pickup.

“The bespoke weapon, operated remotely by agents on the ground as they observed the target, was so heavy because it included a bomb that destroyed the evidence after the killing,” the report said. Agents on the ground operated the gun remotely as they surveyed the target.

“Thank G-d we got all our people out and they didn’t catch anyone, one apparently Israeli intelligence source said. “They didn’t even come close.”

JC added that the hit was carried out solely by Israel, with no US involvement. Top international intelligence officials said that the US was only given a “little clue, like checking the water temperature” prior to the attack.

“The Mossad had documents proving that Fakhrizadeh had worked on several nuclear warheads, each one able to cause five Hiroshimas,” the report quoted Jacob Nagel, one of Israel’s most senior defense officials, as saying.

“He was serious. He still meant to do what he planned. So someone decided that he had had enough time on earth.”

According to a secret assessment in Tehran, it will take a minimum of six years for a replacement for Fakhrizadeh to be fully operational, the report added.

And in Israel, the assessment is that Fakhrizadeh’s death has extended the period of time that Iran requires to produce a nuclear bomb from about three-and-a-half months to two years, with some senior intelligence officials saying it is as high as five years.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)