They Enriched Uranium, Engineered Reactors, Trained Young Minds – Meet The Six Scientists Killed In Israel’s Strikes

Among the casualties were names that rarely appeared in public but were well known in global intelligence circles. They enriched uranium, designed reactors and trained young minds.

New Delhi: On June 13, 2025, Israeli jets struck multiple military and nuclear sites in and around Iran’s Tehran and Natanz. What unfolded was not only tactical assault but also a targeted decapitation of Iran’s nuclear brain trust. Among the casualties were names that rarely appeared in public but were well known in global intelligence circles – Fereydoun Abbasi, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, Motlabizadeh, Syed Amirhossein Feqhi, Ahmadreza Zolfaghari and Abdolhamid Minouchehr.

Abdolhamid Minouchehr was a nuclear physicist at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. He was renowned for his work on uranium enrichment. A quiet academic with a sharp mind for engineering, he had been instrumental in advancing Iran’s centrifuge systems at Natanz. His research helped Tehran enrich uranium to 20% purity – technically short of weapons-grade but politically inflammatory.

Ahmadreza Zolfaghari, also from Shahid Beheshti University, specialised in the design and upkeep of advanced centrifuges. He worked closely with the teams at Natanz and Fordow, pushing the limits of IR-8 technology – an Iranian model capable of enriching uranium at unprecedented speeds. His sudden death has created a vacuum in Iran’s centrifuge engineering core.

Seyed Amirhossein Feqhi was a reactor design expert whose work on the Arak heavy water reactor marked a key milestone in Iran’s ambitions to produce plutonium. He was deeply involved in the safety architecture of nuclear facilities. His elimination marks both symbolic and operational loss for Iran.

Motlabizadeh was more than an engineer. He was a senior leader within Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and closely linked to dual-use research straddling nuclear technology and ballistic missiles. According to multiple defense analysts, he played a role in developing the trigger mechanisms for nuclear weapons – a position that made him a prime target.

Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, president of the Islamic Azad University, was a physicist by training and a mentor by choice. He played a vital role in bridging academic research with Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, shaping young talent to sustain the country’s nuclear programme over the next decade.

Fereydoun Abbasi was the most high-profile name among the six. A former chief of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran and a UN-sanctioned person for his alleged work on nuclear weaponisation, Abbasi had once survived an assassination attempt in 2010.

This time, he was not as fortunate. His death is not just a loss; it is the end of an era for Iran’s nuclear leadership.

What These Losses Mean for Iran’s Nuclear Programme

The killing of these six men has likely set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back by at least one to two years, according to Western intelligence estimates. These were not replaceable bureaucrats, they were hands-on experts with decades of niche experience in enrichment, reactor design and weaponisation research. Training new scientists to operate at their level will not only take time, it will require rebuilding trust, systems and networks in a climate of fear and uncertainty.

Iran, for its part, has denounced the attack as an act of “terrorism”, blaming Israel and accusing the United States of complicity. Tehran has already filed a complaint with the United Nations and has vowed retaliation.

Israel has struck not just at Iran’s infrastructure, but at the very core of its nuclear enterprise. As the dust settles, all eyes are on whether this shadow war in the Middle East is about to enter a far more dangerous and escalatory phase.