A professor of nuclear physics at Tehran University was killed Tuesday by a bomb-rigged motorcycle parked outside his home in Iran's capital, state media reported. Iranian state broadcaster IRIB blamed Israel and the US for the bombing.
Massoud Mohammadi had just left his house on his way to work when the explosion went off, state-run Press TV said.
The blast shattered the windows of his home in northern Tehran's Qeytariyeh neighborhood and left the pavement outside smeared with blood. The semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as confirming the killing.
Mohammadi's body after the blast (Photo: AFP)
Neither report said whether Mohammadi was connected to Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability.
The Press TV report described Mohammadi was "a staunch supporter" of the 1979 revolution that toppled the shah and brought Islamic clerics to power.
Meanwhile, Iran's state broadcaster IRIB said the bomb was planted by "Zionist and American agents", without giving a source for the information.
"The assassination of Mr Massoud Mohammadi, a nuclear scientist and a committed and revolutionary Tehran University professor, was detonated by a remote control," IRIB said on its website.
"As a result of the bomb planted by Zionist and American agents two cars and a motorcycle were severely damaged and the windows in the surrounding residential units were shattered," it said. Iran usually refers to Israel as the "Zionist regime."
The Associated Press contributed to this report
First published: 10:15, 01.12.10