Israel's Mossad has been suspected in the deaths of a number of Iranian and Turkish nuclear scientists. Although Russian officials are calling the crash an "accident" caused by poor weather conditions and pilot error, there are reports that the plane caught fire and broke up before it crashed.
By Wayne Madsen
Several Russian nuclear engineers and scientists, including the nuclear expert who designed Iran's nuclear power plant at Bushehr, were killed when a RusAir Tupolev-134 plane crashed while landing at Petrozavodsk, the capital of the north-western Russian Republic of Karelia, on June 20. The five nuclear experts, Sergei Rizhov, Gennadi Benyok, Valery Lalyn, Nicolai Tronov, and Andrei Tropinov, were employed by Hydropress, one of the main Russian contractors at the Bushehr facility. The five had all worked at the Bushehr facility. The Russian nuclear engineers and scientists were among 45 people killed in the crash of the Russian airliner.
The Russian engineers had also been involved in nuclear power plant projects in India, China, and Bulgaria.
Israel's Mossad has been suspected in the deaths of a number of Iranian and Turkish nuclear scientists. Although Russian officials are calling the crash an "accident" caused by poor weather conditions and pilot error, there are reports that the plane caught fire and broke up before it crashed.
Last November, Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari was killed near Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran after unknown men on motorcycles placed an explosive in his car, which was detonated shortly afterward. Simultaneously, other motorcycle assailants placed a similar device on the car of nuclear expert Fereydoun Abbasi near the same university. The resulting explosion seriously injured Abbasi. In January 2010, Iranian nuclear expert Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was killed after a motorcycle bomb was detonated in front of his house.
In July 2009, Russian and Iranian nuclear experts were reportedly among those passengers killed when an IranAir Ilyushin-62M passenger plane skidded off the runway at Mashhad airport in northeast Iran.
In 2007, Iranian nuclear scientist Ardeshire Hassanpour, who worked at an Iranian nuclear facility in Isfahan, was said to have been assassinated by Mossad agents by being poisoned.
On January 28, 2008, WMR reported: "On November 30, 2007, there was another incident involving the nuclear community in Turkey. A AtlasAir McDonnell-Douglas MD-83 en route from Istanbul to Isparta broke up in mid-air in good weather just prior to it landing. There was no explosion and the wings, engines, and fuselage all separated neatly. All on board were killed. In fact, WMR learned that rescue workers were able to walk into the plane's cabin and retrieve personal belongings, including briefcases.
On board the aircraft was prominent Bosporus University nuclear scientist Engin Arik, who was to attend a nuclear conference in Isparta. She was accompanied on the flight by other Turkish nuclear scientists. Turkish TV showed soldiers with guns guarding the plane's wreckage. Isparta's Governor said the plane was not on its scheduled route and he did not understand why it crashed near the town of Keciborlu, seven miles from Isparta. Governor Semsettin Uzun said he never saw such a plane crash."
After the U.S. occupation of Iraq, hundreds of Iraqi scientists, including those working in nuclear and related disciplines, were reportedly assassinated by Mossad hit teams operating in Iraq. In some cases, the Iraqi scientists assassinated had been promised protection and safe passage to the United States by the CIA.
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