On November 27, 2020, the quiet town of Absard, located about 80 kilometers east of Tehran, became the site of one of the most technically advanced assassinations in modern intelligence history. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a top Iranian nuclear scientist, was killed in broad daylight by a remotely operated machine gun enhanced with artificial intelligence and hidden inside a pickup truck. This method of killing, blending robotics, satellite communication, and facial recognition technology, marked a chilling development in targeted killings.
Fakhrizadeh had been at the center of Western suspicions about Iran’s nuclear program for nearly two decades. He was often described as the father of Iran’s nuclear weapons effort, having allegedly led “Project Amad,” a covert operation that ran in the early 2000s. His name remained relatively unknown to the general public until 2018, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a presentation revealing documents allegedly taken from Iran’s nuclear archives, singled him out and said, “Remember that name.”
Despite heightened security measures and several earlier attempts on his life, Fakhrizadeh continued to live with a sense of routine. That Friday morning, he left his seaside vacation home with his wife, ignoring fresh warnings from Iran’s intelligence service about possible assassination threats. He preferred driving his own vehicle rather than using an armored convoy car, a decision that would later prove fatal.
The convoy consisted of several cars, with Fakhrizadeh driving a black Nissan Teana. His wife, Sadigheh Ghasemi, was seated beside him. As the convoy passed through a stretch of road in Absard, they neared what appeared to be a typical construction zone. Parked along the roadside was a blue Nissan Zamyad pickup truck, loaded with what looked like construction supplies. Hidden beneath tarpaulins and construction debris was a 7.62 mm FN MAG machine gun rigged with explosives and equipped with facial recognition capabilities. The entire weapon system, weighing close to a ton when assembled, had been smuggled into Iran in pieces and carefully reassembled near the location.
The weapon was not controlled by an on-site assassin. Instead, Mossad operatives reportedly operated it remotely from an undisclosed location outside Iran. Cameras mounted around the truck provided real-time video feedback. However, there was a noticeable delay due to satellite communication—roughly 1.6 seconds between what the sniper saw and the weapon’s action. To counter this, the machine gun was programmed with AI to predict motion, absorb recoil effects, and adjust in real time to maintain accuracy.
Just before the attack, a disabled car had been placed earlier at a junction along the route to verify Fakhrizadeh’s presence. This car contained a separate camera, allowing the operators to confirm that the scientist was indeed behind the wheel and his wife was seated next to him. As they neared the parked Zamyad truck, a dog appeared in the road, forcing the car to slow down. The weapon activated, shooting into the front of the car. Fakhrizadeh, wounded in the shoulder, stepped out and took cover behind the door. The system adjusted again and fired, hitting him several more times, including fatal shots to the spine.
His wife rushed to him, but it was too late. She held his head in her lap as he lay on the ground, telling her to run away. But she refused to leave. Their son, Hamed Fakhrizadeh, received a distress call from his mother and arrived at the scene within minutes. What he saw was chaos—smoke, blood, and silence.
The truck was rigged to explode after the mission, intending to destroy all evidence. However, it did not fully detonate as planned, leaving enough behind for Iranian investigators to reconstruct parts of the attack. Iranian media initially gave conflicting reports. Some claimed there was a shootout between bodyguards and assassins; others reported a massive explosion followed by automatic gunfire. It was only days later that Iranian officials confirmed that the attack was likely carried out with a remote-controlled weapon.
This was not Israel’s first attempt to eliminate Fakhrizadeh. In 2009, a Mossad operation to kill him in Tehran was called off at the last moment due to fears that the plan had been compromised. From 2010 to 2012, Israel had assassinated at least four other Iranian nuclear scientists using different tactics, including motorbike-mounted shooters and car bombs. Each method required on-ground agents willing to take the risk. This operation, however, eliminated that need.
The planning behind the assassination involved high-level discussions between Israeli intelligence officials and American counterparts during the Trump administration. Mossad’s director at the time, Yossi Cohen, had met with President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and CIA director Gina Haspel. After Trump abandoned the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the door opened again for Israel to resume covert operations against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
![Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, right, sits alongside two unidentified men in a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran, January 23, 2019 [File: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AP_20332604147615.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80)
Iran’s response was predictable. Leaders in Tehran blamed Israel and vowed revenge. Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, much like the earlier killing of Qassem Soleimani by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad, sent shockwaves across the region. It raised questions about the increasing reliance on advanced technologies in targeted killings and the ease with which foreign agents could penetrate Iran’s supposedly secure environments.
Critics of the operation have raised ethical and legal concerns. While Israel viewed the operation as a preventive measure to delay Iran’s nuclear development, others saw it as an act of aggression that risked escalation in an already tense region. Some security analysts questioned the implications of using AI in assassinations, noting that it lowers the risks for the attackers while introducing new levels of unpredictability.
Despite his top-level position, Fakhrizadeh had maintained a low profile. His contributions to Iran’s nuclear efforts were largely behind closed doors. Iranian officials later acknowledged that he had played a key role in developing Iran’s nuclear strategy and had contributed significantly to defense research and technology.
The use of AI, facial recognition, and remote-controlled weaponry in this operation marks a turning point in covert military and intelligence operations. Traditional assassination methods often required direct human involvement, which posed logistical and security challenges. By contrast, this operation showcased how technology could achieve the same objective from a distance, with high accuracy and minimal risk to operatives.
In the days and weeks that followed the assassination, global leaders expressed concern about rising tensions. The attack threatened to derail ongoing efforts to revive diplomatic talks over Iran’s nuclear program. It also deepened suspicions in Iran that foreign agents were operating freely within its borders, weakening public trust in its security apparatus.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s death marked the end of a long pursuit by Israeli intelligence. But it also opened a new chapter in warfare and espionage. The precision of the operation, the technology involved, and the broader geopolitical consequences highlight how modern conflict is increasingly driven by machines, algorithms, and data. The line between battlefield and covert operation is becoming thinner, and the tools once seen only in science fiction are now part of reality.
