Azernews.Az

Iran says the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists in Tehran will not stop the progress of its nuclear program, in the fourth attack targeting an Iranian nuclear physicist in two years, Radio Liberty reported.

Calling the assassination "evidence of [foreign] government-sponsored terrorism," Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi told state television that the attack made Iran's "scientists more determined than ever in striding toward Iran's progress."

Two men on a motorcycle reportedly attached a magnetic bomb to the car of nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan as he drove in northern Tehran early on January 11, killing him when the bomb exploded moments later.

A woman told Iranian state television: "I saw a motorcycle. They were wearing woolen hats -- black woolen hats. [There were] two people. I saw the motorcycle speed by. I saw them. It appeared as though they had something in their hands."

Roshan's driver/bodyguard later died of his wounds, while a third occupant of the car remains in hospital.

Iran's Atomic Energy Organization released a statement confirming Roshan was a nuclear scientist and calling his killing a "heinous act."

Fars news agency said that Roshan, aged 32, supervised a department at Iran's uranium-enrichment facility in Natanz, near Isfahan.

Tehran's deputy governor blamed the assassination on Israel. Safar Ali Baratloo told media that "the bomb was a magnetic one and the same as the ones previously used for the assassination of [other] scientists and is the work of Zionists."