The Israeli foreign intelligence service, Mossad, assassinated Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, in November 2020. The initial reports about his assassination were confusing.
- A hit squad waited for him.
- A truck exploded in front of his car.
- Gunmen opened fire from a nearby car.
The most outrageous report was an A.I. robot assassin. The New York Times explains what really happened that day in a recent report.
Did an A.I. robot assassinate an Iranian nuclear scientist?
The Target
Mossad wanted to assassinate Fakhrizadeh for at least 14 years. Every time they sent in a hit squad, they had to abort the mission. Despite assassinating everyone else associated with the nuclear program, he was an elusive target.
Fakhrizadeh received so many warnings about threats to his life that he wanted a normal life. He drove his wife in an unarmored car. A serious violation of security protocol for high-ranking government officials.
The Location
Mossad reportedly had an inside source on Fakhrizadeh’s security detail. They knew when and where the security convoy would take him to his vacation home.
The hit squad needed verification that he was driving his unarmored car. They set up a disabled car with a missing tire on a jack at the U-turn on the highway. When the convoy drove by, a camera took a picture.
Three-quarters of a mile down the road, the hit squad deployed new weapon in the back of a pickup truck. A tarp and construction material covered the weapon.
The hit squad left Iran hours before the operation commenced.
The Weapon
Let’s be clear that the weapon wasn’t an autonomous A.I. robot like the Terminator. The weapon was an A.I.-assisted, remote-controlled machine gun on a robotic platform.
The A.I. compensated for uncontrolled variables that interfere with accurate weapon fire.
- The 1.6 second round-trip time lag via satellite.
- The recoil from firing the weapon on a truck.
- The speed of the approaching car.
A snipper controlled the remote weapon via satellite 1,000 miles away.
The Strike
When the convoy came into view, the lead security car sped ahead to inspect the vacation home. The second car with the nuclear scientist slowed for a speed bump just before the parked truck.
The snipper fired shots below the windshield. The car swerved and came to a stop.
The snipper fired three shots into the windshield. One shot hitting the nuclear scientist in the shoulder.
The nuclear scientist got out of the car to hide behind the opened door. The final shots that killed him went through the door.
The truck exploded shortly thereafter. The explosion didn’t destroy the weapon but sent it up in the air. When it came crashing down, the weapon was a recognizable and unusable mess.
Because a human pulled the trigger, the A.I. robot didn’t assassinate anyone.