- Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, “father” of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, was on Israel’s hit list since 2007.
- In November 2020, the Mossad pulled off a hit using a remote-controlled, AI-powered machine gun.
- It was controlled by operatives outside of Iran, who killed Fakhrizadeh in under a minute, per NYT.
The “father” of Iran’s nuclear weapons program was at the top of Israel’s hit list for 14 years. On November 27 2020, after a failed attempt to kill him a decade earlier, the Mossad finally managed to assassinate Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
Their weapon of choice? A remote-controlled machine gun that required no on-site operatives and utilized advanced artificial intelligence technology, according to a report by The New York Times.
The deadly weapon was a special model of a Belgian-made FN MAG machine gun, which was attached to an advanced robotic apparatus, The New York Times reported.
It weighed about a ton and was controlled by Mossad operatives outside of Iran, thus ensuring the safety of Israeli agents, intelligence officials told the media outlet.
In order to get the weapon into the country, The Times said, it was smuggled into Iran piece by piece and was secretly assembled in time for the hit.
The Mossad had been following Fakhrizadeh since 2007, The Times reported, and the Israeli national intelligence agency reportedly set in motion plans to assassinate him in late 2019 after discussions with former President Donald Trump and high-ranking US officials.
Read the article by Joshua Zitser in Business Insider Australia.