Hyderabad: Iran on Friday April 19 fired air defence batteries early Friday morning after reports of explosions near the city of Isfahan underscoring the rising tensions in the wider middle east following the Islamic Republic's retaliatory strike after attack on its consulate in Syria.
While the situation heated up between the two countries after Iran's strike of 300 odd drones and missiles on Israel earlier this week, tensions had been simmering since the last over a decade in the wake of Israel's strikes on the Iranian soil.
Iran Nuclear Scientist Killed in Motorcycle Blast: On Jan 12, 2010, a physics professor at Tehran University, Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, was killed through a remote-controlled bomb planted in his motorcycle. Iranian state media claimed that the US and Israel were behind the attack. The Iranian government described Ali-Mohammadi as a nuclear scientist.
Shahid Beheshti University Killed in Car Explosion: On 29 November 2010, a professor at the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, Majid Shahriari, was killed in a car explosion on his way to work. His wife was also wounded. The president of Iran at the time, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, blamed the United States and Israel for the attacks.
Electrical Engineer's Killing: On 23 July, 2011, Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electrical engineer working at a national security research facility, was killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle in Tehran. State media initially identified the man as Darious Rezaei, a physics professor. Hours later, state media backtracked and said the victim was Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electronics student. Deputy Interior Minister Safarali Baratloo claimed that he was not involved in the nuclear program. But a foreign government official and a former U.N. nuclear inspector alleged that Rezaeinejad was working on high-voltage switches, parts necessary to start explosions needed to trigger a nuclear warhead. Iran blamed the United States and Israel for the assassination.
Chemical Engineer Killed in Car Blast: On 11 Jan, 2012, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemical engineering graduate, was killed by a bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist in Tehran. Iran blamed Israel and the US for the attack and said Ahmadi Roshan was a nuclear scientist who supervised a department at Iran’s primary uranium enrichment facility, in the city of Natanz.
Nuclear Scientist Killed Outside Tehran: On 27 November, 2020, prominent nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in a roadside attack outside Tehran. Western and Israeli intelligence had long suspected that Fakhrizadeh was the father of an Iranian nuclear weapons programme. He was sanctioned by the United Nations in 2007 and the US in 2008.
Attacks on Iranian nuclear and Military sites
On Jan 31, 2018, Mossad team raided a warehouse in Tehran that housed a vast archive of Iran’s nuclear program. The agents used torches to cut through 32 safes. The team smuggled some 50,000 pages and 163 compact discs out of the country. On April 30, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that Israel obtained some 100,000 secret files that prove that Iran has lied about never having a nuclear weapons programme.
On July 2, 2020, an explosion caused extensive damage to Iran’s main nuclear enrichment site at Natanz and set the program back months. The blast damaged a factory producing advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges that could enrich uranium faster than the IR-1 centrifuges allowed under the 2015 nuclear deal.
On 11 April, 2021, an explosion at Natanz hit the power supply for centrifuges and caused damage that could take up to nine months to fully repair, The New York Times reported. Alireza Zakani, head of Parliament’s Research Center, said that “thousands of centrifuges” were destroyed during the blackout. He claimed that 300 pounds of explosives had been smuggled into the facility in equipment that had been sent abroad for repair.
On 23 June, 2021, an Israeli quadcopter drone launched from inside Iran, struck a facility in Karaj for manufacturing centrifuges for the nuclear program. Satellite photos showed damage to the roof and suggested that a fire had broken out. Iran later blamed Israel for the attack.
On 25 May, 2022, explosives-laden quadcopter suicide drones hit the Parchin military complex southeast of Tehran, killing an engineer and damaging a building where drones had been developed by the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces.
On 28 Jan, 2023, several suicide drones struck a military facility in central Isfahan, but they were thwarted and caused no damage. While Iran did not immediately place blame for the attacks, Iran’s UN envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, wrote a letter to the UN chief saying that “primary investigation suggested Israel was responsible”.
Israel’s cyberattacks on Iran
In June 2010, the Stuxnet virus was found in computers at the nuclear plant in Iran’s Bushehr city, and it spread from there to other facilities. As many as 30,000 computers across at least 14 facilities were impacted by September 2010. At least 1,000 out of 9,000 centrifuges in Iran’s Natanz enrichment facility were destroyed, according to an estimate by the Institute for Science and International Security. Upon investigation, Iran blamed Israel and the US for the virus attack.
In April 2011, a virus called Stars was discovered by the Iranian cyberdefence agency which said the malware was designed to infiltrate and damage Iran’s nuclear facilities. The virus mimicked official government files and inflicted “minor damage” on computer systems, according to Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran’s Passive Defense Organization. Iran blamed Israel and the US.
In November 2011, Iran said it discovered a new virus called Duqu, based on Stuxnet. Experts said Duqu was intended to gather data for future cyberattacks. The Iranian government announced it was checking computers at main nuclear sites. The Duqu spyware was widely believed by experts to have been linked to Israel.
In April 2012, Iran blamed the US and Israel for malware called Wiper, which erased the hard drives of computers owned by the Ministry of Petroleum and the National Iranian Oil Company. In May 2012, Iran announced that a virus called Flame had tried to steal government data from government computers. The Washington Post reported that Israel and the US had used it to collect intelligence. Then-Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon did not confirm the nation’s involvement but acknowledged that Israel would use all means to “harm the Iranian nuclear system”.
In October 2018, the Iranian government said that it had blocked an invasion by a new generation of Stuxnet, blaming Israel for the attack. In October 2021, a cyberattack hit the system that allows Iranians to use government-issued cards to purchase fuel at a subsidised rate, affecting all 4,300 petrol stations in Iran. Consumers had to either pay the regular price, more than double the subsidised one, or wait for stations to reconnect to the central distribution system. Iran blamed Israel and the US.
In May 2020, a cyberattack impacted computers that control maritime traffic at Shahid Rajaee port on Iran’s southern coast in the Gulf, creating a hold-up of ships that waited to dock. The Washington Post quoted US officials as saying that Israel was behind the attack, though Israel did not claim responsibility.
