Bomb Kills Tehran Professor

Target is seen as a longtime regime insider who veered toward supporting the opposition

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By FARNAZ FASSIHI and CHIP CUMMINS

A remote-controlled bomb killed a Tehran University physics professor near his home early Tuesday, in what Iranian authorities called an assassination backed by Western powers, including the U.S. and Israel.

Iranian state television says a remote-controlled bomb aboard a motorcycle killed Tehran University professor and nuclear scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi.

Iran often accuses the two countries of meddling in its affairs.

The victim was identified as Masoud Ali Mohammadi, 50 years old. Official news reports described Mr. Mohammadi as devout, loyal to the Islamic Republic and to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Before the June 12 presidential election, however, opposition Web sites published Prof. Mohammadi's name among a list of 240 Tehran University teachers who backed opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. The election triggered more than six months of sometimes-violent street protests that have shaken the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Attacks on Iranian officials in remote provinces aren't uncommon. But a bombing in Tehran, the capital, is rare. The target—seen as a longtime regime insider who appeared to veer toward supporting the opposition—immediately raised suspicion among colleagues and students that the attack was politically motivated.

"The reports about his assassination are suspicious. In the current circumstances in Iran, anything is possible. We are afraid this might be the start of retaliation against professors who criticize the government," said a university colleague in a telephone interview.
[Iran] AFP/Getty Images

Prof. Mohammadi's membership in Iran's broadly defined nuclear-science brain trust also raised questions about whether the attack was related to the country's controversial nuclear program. Iran says it is pursuing a peaceful nuclear program, but Western officials allege it is seeking weapons.

Last year, the U.S. imposed a year-end deadline for progress in negotiations over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Washington has threatened fresh economic sanctions.

State media identified Mr. Mohammadi as a nuclear physicist. But he was best known for his work in mathematical physics and theoretical, high-energy physics, according to one colleague, who was also a former student.

That could lump his work into the broad category of nuclear science, but colleagues said it had little to do with practical, nuclear technology. A spokesman for Iran's atomic agency, Ali Shirzadian, told the Associated Press that the professor had no link with the agency responsible for Iran's nuclear program.

Still, Iranian officials seized upon his field of study as evidence of a foreign plot to slow down Tehran's nuclear-energy program.

"Such terrorist moves and apparent [eliminations] of Iranian nuclear scientists will definitely cause no obstacle in the way of the country's scientific and technological development," state media quoted foreign-ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast saying. "Rather, they will speed up it."

Tehran blamed the killing on an Iranian royalist opposition group it said operated under the direction of Israel and the U.S., according to state media.

A few hours after the incident, a statement posted on a Web site associated with the royalist group Tandor claimed responsibility. But hours later, many independent news agencies carried a counterstatement by the group, denying it was responsible for the attack and accusing Iran's intelligence ministry of setting up a shadow Web site in the group's name. It was impossible to verify the authenticity of the Web site or the conflicting statements.

A U.S. State Department spokesman told the AP the allegation of American involvement was "absurd." An Israeli official declined to comment.

Iran has also accused the U.S. of complicity in an alleged kidnapping of another Iranian nuclear scientist, who disappeared last year during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Washington and Saudi Arabia have dismissed any such plot.

Iranian authorities said Tuesday that a parked motorbike was booby-trapped with an explosive device that detonated near the professor's home in northern Tehran. Pictures and video footage of the scene showed debris of a burned and mangled car and shards of glass blanketing the streets. Prof. Mohammadi's body lay nearby, covered with a blanket.

Mr. Mohammadi was a member of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from 1980 to 2003, according to the official Iranian Fars news agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC. He was the head of the physics department at Tehran University and deputy director of the university's college of sciences.

By Tuesday evening, the professor's current and former students were posting comments and messages of condolence about him on an opposition blog called Dalan Sabz, Farsi for "the Green Path."

A student named Ehsan wrote that Prof. Mohammadi was a vocal critic of Mr. Ahmadinejad and Iran's ruling elite, and would often express those views in class. He was a staunch supporter of the opposition and encouraged students to attend protests, and would often march along side them, he added.

At one point during the last half year's tumultuous street protests, his students told him that security forces were shooting at the crowd, another student wrote on the blog. "He told us 'Young man, don't be afraid of bullets. You have to stand up to this regime,'" according to the blog account.

Write to Farnaz Fassihi at farnaz.fassihi@wsj.com and Chip Cummins at chip.cummins@wsj.com

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