Thursday, 09 February 2012 09:34

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by Richard Engel and Robert Windrem

Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders.

The group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980.

The attacks, which have killed five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007 and may have destroyed a missile research and development site, have been carried out in dramatic fashion, with motorcycle-borne assailants often attaching small magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims’ cars.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement.

The Iranians have no doubt who is responsible – Israel and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, known by various acronyms, including MEK, MKO and PMI.

“The relation is very intricate and close,” said Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, speaking of the MEK and Israel.  “They (Israelis) are paying … the Mujahedin. Some of their (MEK) agents … (are) providing Israel with information.  And they recruit and also manage logistical support.”

Moreover, he said, the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, is training MEK members in Israel on the use of motorcycles and small bombs.  In one case, he said, Mossad agents built a replica of the home of an Iranian nuclear scientist so that the assassins could familiarize themselves with the layout prior to the attack.

Much of what the Iranian government knows of the attacks and the links between Israel and MEK  comes from interrogation of an assassin who failed to carry out an attack in late 2010 and the materials found on him, Larijani said.

The U.S.-educated Larijani, whose two younger brothers run the legislative and judicial branches of the Iranian government, said the Israelis’ rationale is simple. “Israel does not have direct access to our society. Mujahedin, being Iranian and being part of Iranian society, they have … a good number of … places to get into the touch with people. So I think they are working hand-to-hand very close.  And we do have very concrete documents.”

Two senior U.S. officials confirmed for NBC News  the MEK’s role in the assassinations, with one senior official saying, “All your inclinations are correct.” A third official would not confirm or deny the relationship, saying only, “It hasn’t been clearly confirmed yet.”  All the officials denied any U.S. involvement in the assassinations.

As it has in the past, Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined comment. Said a spokesman, "As long as we can't see all the evidence being claimed by NBC, the Foreign Ministry won't react to every gossip and report being published worldwide."

For its part, the MEK pointed to a statement calling the allegations “absolutely false.”

The sophistication of the attacks supports the Iranian claims that an experienced intelligence service is involved, experts say.

In the most recent attack, on Jan. 11, 2012, Mostafa Ahamdi Roshan died in a blast in Tehran moments after two assailants on a motorcycle placed a small magnetic bomb on his vehicle. Roshan was a deputy director at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and was reportedly involved in procurement for the nuclear program, which Iran insists is not a weapons program.

Previous attacks include the assassination of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, killed by a bomb outside his Tehran home in January 2010, and an explosion in November of that year that took the life of Majid Shahriari and wounded Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, who is now the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

In the case of Roshan, the bomb appears to have been a shaped charge that directed all the explosive power inside the vehicle, killing him and his bodyguard driver but leaving nearby traffic unaffected.

Although Roshan was directly involved in the nuclear program, working at the huge centrifuge facility between Tehran and Qom, Iran’s religious center, at least one other scientist who was killed wasn’t linked to the Iranian nuclear program, according to Larijani.

Speaking of bombing victim Ali-Mohammadi, whom he described as a friend, Larijani told NBC News, “In fact this guy who was assassinated was not involved in the nitty-gritty of the situation.  He was a scientist, a physicist, working on the theoretically parts of nuclear energy, which you can teach it in every university. You can find it in every text.”

“This is an Israeli plot.  A dirty plot,” Larijani added angrily. He also claimed the assassinations are not having an effect on the program and have only made scientists more resolute in carrying out their mission.

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Wednesday, 08 February 2012 09:07

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By the CNN Wire Staff

A day after Russia's foreign minister touted the Syrian president's "commitment" to ending violence, at least 47 people were killed in the Syrian city of Homs Wednesday, an opposition activist group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead included 20 members of three "unarmed" families, killed when government forces stormed three homes in a neighborhood of Homs.

One opposition activist, Omar Shakir, put the death toll at 54 after visiting and calling field hospitals in three neighborhoods in Homs.

"There is nonstop shelling," said Shakir, a Homs resident. "They are shelling us using tanks."

He said those wounded by government troops must resort to ill-equipped, makeshift clinics because rockets struck one of two hospitals and the other was taken over by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

As the epicenter of the anti-government protest movement in Syria, Homs has experienced some of the worst violence since the government began its assault on dissidents 11 months ago.

"We cannot count the dead anymore. They want to finish us," said Mohammed Salih, another resident of Homs. He described loud explosions from shelling Wednesday that started at 5 a.m.

Even at home, activists say, no one is safe.

Government troops are moving from house to house by breaking through walls rather than venturing back onto the street, where they might face the opposition Free Syrian Army, said an activist who asked to be identified only as "Danny" for safety reasons. The Free Syrian Army includes soldiers who defected from government forces.

"All we need from the international community is to impose a no-fly zone and to assist the FSA (Free Syrian Army) with better weapons, and we can defeat Assad dogs," Shakir said.

In addition to the reported deaths in Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 people were wounded by government forces in the village of Taseel, and it reported ongoing clashes between government forces and defectors in the village of Kafr Shams.

The U.N. Security Council put forward a draft resolution over the weekend aimed at stemming the violence in Syria, but Russia and China vetoed the measure.

Wednesday, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights described "extreme urgency for the international community to cut through the politics and take effective action to protect the Syrian population."

"I am appalled by the Syrian government's willful assault on Homs and its use of artillery and other heavy weaponry in what appear to be indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas in the city," Navi Pillay said in a statement. "The failure of the Security Council to agree on firm collective action appears to have fueled the Syrian Government's readiness to massacre its own people in an effort to crush dissent."

Pillay said since the start of the brutal government crackdown on largely peaceful protesters, thousands of protesters and civilians have been killed, injured, detained or tortured. She said the acts may constitute crimes against humanity, punishable under international law.

U.S. officials made clear Tuesday that the United States has lost patience with al-Assad, who rose to power in 2000 following his father's three-decade rule.

"Your days are numbered," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said, referring to al-Assad. "It is time and past time for you to transfer power responsibly and peacefully."

Her remarks came as two senior administration officials told CNN that while the United States remains focused on exerting nonmilitary pressure on Damascus, the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command have begun a preliminary internal review of U.S. military capabilities to prepare options in the event that U.S. President Barack Obama calls for them.

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