Israel Confirms Killing Nine Iranian Nuclear Scientists in Airstrikes; Iran Identifies Victims
Israel kills 9 Iranian nuclear scientists in strikes on Tehran, Natanz. IDF calls it major blow to Iran's nuclear program. Iran vows revenge, calls it 'terrorist acts'.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The Israeli military announced on Saturday that its large-scale airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities resulted in the deaths of nine prominent Iranian nuclear scientists, describing the operation as a decisive blow to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
“During the Israeli air force strikes at the onset of Operation Rising Lion, nine senior scientists and experts, who advanced the Iranian regime's nuclear weapons program, were eliminated,” read a statement by the Israeli military, which also emphasized that the attacks were based on "precise intelligence gathered by the intelligence directorate."
“Their elimination represents a significant blow to the Iranian regime's ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction,” the statement concluded.
Iranian Media Identifies Victims
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency and state television confirmed that six nuclear scientists were killed in the Israeli strikes, corroborating Israel’s claims but denouncing the attacks as "terrorist acts" and violations of international law.
Iranian state television also announced on Saturday that three additional nuclear scientists were killed in Israeli attacks, bringing the total number of scientists killed in strikes since Friday to nine.
The television reported that "three of the country's nuclear scientists, Ali Baghaei Karimi, Mansour Asghari, and Saeed Borji, were martyred in the Zionist regime's terrorist attacks."
A Strategic and Symbolic Strike
The Israeli air force’s precision strikes reportedly targeted multiple military and nuclear sites, including facilities in Tehran and at Natanz. Tel Aviv has described the operation as preemptive and critical to halting Iran’s path toward nuclear armament.
Iranian officials have vowed retaliation, while also mourning what they describe as a national loss of scientific and strategic magnitude. Iranian outlets accused Israel of targeting the country’s “scientific backbone,” declaring that the names of these scientists are now etched in the record of "national martyrdom".
The deaths of the nine nuclear experts—confirmed by both Israeli and Iranian sources—mark one of the deadliest assaults on Iran’s nuclear cadre to date, adding another volatile layer to the spiraling confrontation between the two regional adversaries.
