Iran blames Israel for murder of scientist

IRAN said Israel was behind the murder of one of its nuclear scientists, who was killed by a magnet bomb fixed to his car by a motorcyclist.

The bombing, which Iranian officials said bore all the hallmarks of assassinations of other nuclear scientists in the past years, came as Washington sought to persuade a sceptical China to help efforts to toughen sanctions against Iran.

Iran has blamed Israeli, British and US intelligence for the attacks in the past, which it said were aimed at assassinating key people working on Iran’s nuclear programme. Both Israel and the US have rejected the claims.