Iran media: Wrong man killed

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency has denied that a physicist involved in the country's disputed nuclear program was assassinated.

The news agency said the wrong man was reported killed Saturday, leading to a mix-up.

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The Fars news agency says the victim of Saturday's attack was Darioush Rezaeinejad, a university student in Tehran. Other news reports - including by the semi-official ISNA news agency - had identified him as Iranian physicist Darioush Rezaei.

Iran officials could not be reached for comment.

According to earlier reports, a pair of gunmen firing from motorcycles killed an Iranian physicist involved in the country's nuclear program, in an attack similar to other recent assassinations of scientists that Tehran blamed on the US and Israel.

"An Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated in front of his house today ... and his wife was also wounded," the semi-official ISNA news agency said. ISNA identified the victim as Darioush Rezaei, a 46-year-old physics professor involved in Iran's nuclear program.

Rezaei was reportedly a physics professor whose area of expertise was neutron transport, which lies at the heart of nuclear chain reactions in reactors and bombs. One of the earlier assassinations, in November, killed a man with the same specialization.

The official IRNA news agency said that "heartless terrorists" were behind the killing.

'Wife rushed to hospital'

The semi-official Mehr news agency also identified the victim as a professor of physics and said he was assassinated in front of his house in Bani Hashem street in Tehran. The scientist reportedly worked in the Iranian atomic energy agency and lectured at a local university.

The wife of the scientist was wounded in the attack and rushed to hospital for treatment, Mehr reported, quoting a police official.

In January 2010, a nuclear scientist that may have taken part in the Ayatollah regime's nuclear program was assassinated near his home.

Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi was a lecturer in Tehran University and was killed in an explosion while going into his car in northern Tehran. An explosive device apparently planted in a nearby motorcycle is believed to have been activated by remote control.

Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been murdered in recent years in attacks that Iran has blamed on the US and Israel.

Reuters, AP and Dudi Cohen contributed to the story

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