IRAN: Another Nuclear scientist killed in covert war - by Jonathan Manthorpe

The latest killing in the covert war to decapitate Iran's nuclear development program comes at a time when the tensions between Tehran and the West are at levels not seen for decades Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a director of Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility and an expert on chemistry programs associated with nuclear development, was killed instantly in morning traffic on Wednesday when two men on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the door of his car and sped off. The bomb was detonated remotely. Roshan's driver was also killed, and another person in the car and a female bystander were wounded. This is the fourth assassination of a leading Iranian nuclear scientist in two years and the third using magnetic bombs attached to cars by motorcyclists.

Washington's National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said the U.S. "had absolutely nothing to do" with the assassination. Israeli officials were far more equivocal.

There has been wide speculation that Israelis created the Stuxnet computer virus, which in 2010 infected and caused the self-destruction of many of the control mechanisms for the cascades of centrifuges Iran has built to, potentially, enrich uranium.

There are also allegations of links between Israel's intelligence agencies and the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), a socialist group dedicated to the violent overthrow of Iran's Islamic republic founded in 1979. MEK claims to have provided information to western governments about Iran's nuclear program.

For more go to the Vancouver Sun