Israeli airstrike kills top Iranian nuclear scientists in Operation Rising Lion

In a dramatic escalation of its military campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, Israel launched a massive aerial assault on June 13, targeting dozens of high-value sites across the country.

According to an official statement from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) shared via its Telegram channel, the strikes were executed simultaneously by Israeli fighter jets, operating under the guidance of military intelligence.

The offensive marked the beginning of what the IDF has called Operation Rising Lion, a high-stakes mission aimed at crippling Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons development. The opening wave of strikes proved particularly devastating: Israeli warplanes reportedly eliminated nine senior Iranian scientists and experts, all of whom played pivotal roles in advancing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

“These individuals were central to Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” the IDF noted, emphasising that those killed had decades of expertise in key scientific and engineering disciplines related to nuclear technology.

Among the high-profile casualties were:

• Fereydoun Abbasi, a prominent nuclear engineering specialist

• Mohammad Mahdi Tehranshi, an accomplished physics expert

• Akbar Motalebi Zadeh, a chemical engineering authority

• Saeed Barji, a materials engineering expert

• Amir Hassan Fakhahi, a physicist

• Abd al-Hamid Minoushehr, known for his work in reactor physics

• Mansour Asgari, another leading physicist

• Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari Daryani, a specialist in nuclear engineering

• Ali Bakhouei Katirimi, a mechanics expert

The targeted killings underscore the operation’s strategic intent: to decapitate Iran’s nuclear knowledge base and disrupt its capability to build a nuclear weapon. The Israeli government has long accused Tehran of concealing weapons-grade enrichment under the guise of a civilian program — a claim Iran denies.

By Tamilla Hasanova