In Iran, assassination shock spurs calls to rethink security
Nearly a decade ago, after a string of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists shook Tehran, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was assigned the task of guarding them.
The very presence of the powerful IRGC was meant to be deterrent enough to prevent enemy intelligence operatives from further killings, conducted as part of a covert war waged in earnest at the time by Israel and the United States to slow down Iran’s nuclear advances.
“Israel targeted the nuclear scientists because it understood that they did not have the security protection of the IRGC,” Gen. Mohammad Hassan Kazemi, the deputy commander of the IRGC security branch, boastfully announced in late 2013.
But any claim such a deterrent effect still existed disappeared Nov. 27, when the brazen killing in broad daylight of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh – long reputed to be the “father” of Iran’s nuclear program – exposed deep vulnerabilities in
Bodyguards tipped offString of breachesA specific alertLooking at the wrong targets