Iran’s tensions escalated sharply on Friday, April 19, as it engaged its air defense systems early in the morning, following reports of explosions near Isfahan. This situation underscores the mounting pressure in the broader Middle Eastern region, fueled by the Islamic Republic’s reprisal following an attack on its consulate in Syria.
The conflict has been brewing for over a decade due to Israel’s strikes on Iranian territory, but this week it intensified when Iran launched a barrage of 300 drones and missiles towards Israel.
On January 12, 2010, Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, a physics professor at Tehran University, met his demise via a remote-controlled bomb affixed to his motorcycle. The Iranian state media attributed this to the US and Israel. Ali-Mohammadi was portrayed as a nuclear scientist by the Iranian authorities.
Then, on November 29, 2010, Majid Shahriari, a professor in the nuclear engineering department at Shahid Beheshti University, was fatally wounded in a vehicular explosion en route to work. His wife was also injured. Iranian leadership, including then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, pointed fingers at the US and Israel.
On July 23, 2011, Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electrical engineer linked to national security research, was shot dead by two motorcycle gunmen in Tehran. Initial reports misidentified him as a physics professor. It later emerged that he was an electronics student possibly involved in high-voltage switch development, essential for nuclear warhead detonation. Iran again blamed the US and Israel for his assassination.
Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemical engineering graduate, perished in a car explosion on January 11, 2012. Iran asserted that Roshan was a nuclear scientist overseeing a department at the primary uranium enrichment facility in Natanz and blamed Israel and the US for the attack.
On November 27, 2020, a leading nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated in an attack outside Tehran. He was believed to be the architect of Iran’s nuclear weapons program and had faced UN and US sanctions.
The raids and destruction of Iranian nuclear and military installations continued. On January 31, 2018, Mossad operatives infiltrated a Tehran warehouse and exfiltrated a significant archive of Iran’s nuclear program. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu later unveiled evidence of Iran’s deception about its nuclear activities.
On July 2, 2020, an explosion at the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility caused substantial setbacks. Similarly, on April 11, 2021, another explosion at Natanz disrupted power to centrifuges, causing months-long delays in repairs.
Further attacks on nuclear sites included a drone strike on Karaj’s centrifuge manufacturing site on June 23, 2021, and another drone attack on Parchin’s military complex on May 25, 2022. Suicide drone strikes in Isfahan on January 28, 2023, though intercepted, further heightened tensions.
Israel’s cyber operations against Iran have also been extensive. The infamous Stuxnet virus, discovered in 2010, damaged Iran’s nuclear facilities and spread to other sectors. In subsequent years, viruses such as Stars, Duqu, and Flame continued to infiltrate Iran’s systems, leading the Iranian government to consistently accuse Israel and the US.
Most recently, cyberattacks in 2018 and 2021 targeted Iran’s fuel distribution and port systems. Such actions underscore the ongoing clandestine cyber warfare between the two nations.
