TEHRAN – Iran has accused Israel and the USA of assassinating an Iranian nuclear professor, pointing to a string of attacks against such scientists in the country.

Both countries have denied the accusations, according to the AP.

Iran’s vice-president reacted to the attack by saying it would not stop “progress” in the country’s nuclear program.

Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan

“Those who claim to be combating terrorism have targeted Iranian scientists. They should know that Iranian scientists are more determined than ever in striding towards Iran’s progress,” Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi told state television.

Identified by Iranian media as Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, the chemistry expert was killed on January 11 in a car-bomb explosion, while two others were injured. 

“This morning a motorcyclist attached a bomb to a Peugeot 405, which exploded,” the deputy governor of Tehran province, Safar Ali Baratloo, was quoted by the ILNA news agency as saying.

The magnetic bomb, attached under Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan’s car, went off at a faculty of Iran’s Allameh Tabatai University.

“The bomb was a magnetic one and the same as the ones previously used for the assassination of the scientists, and the work of the Zionists (Israelis),” Fars quoted Safarali Baratloo as saying.