Iran makes arrests over nuclear scientist’s assassination

IRANIAN security has made a number of arrests in the case of the assassination of a prominent nuclear scientist, the country’s intelligence chief said yesterday.

Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said the arrests have given Iran’s secret services “new clues” about the people involved in the deadly attacks, which it blames on Western intelligence agencies.

According to Iranian authorities, assailants on motorcycles attached magnetised bombs to the cars of two nuclear scientists as they were driving to work in Tehran on Monday, killing one and wounding the other.

Iran says the attacks are part of a covert campaign by Israel and the West to sabotage its nuclear programme which the US and its allies suspect is aimed at producing nuclear weapons — something Iran denies.

Officials say the campaign includes the abduction of Iranian scientists, the sale of faulty equipment and the planting of a destructive computer worm known as Stuxnet, which briefly brought Iran’s uranium enrichment activity to a halt last month.

“A number of people were identified and arrested in connection with the two terrorist attacks,” Moslehi was quoted by state TV’s website as saying. He didn’t say how many were arrested.