Tel Aviv: The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on Saturday announced elimination of nine Iranian nuclear scientists during the opening phase of its military operation against Iran's nuclear programme, which began early Friday.  

Revealing details of the ongoing operation, the IDF described it as a critical blow to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

According to the IDF, the nine scientists were instrumental in advancing Iran's efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon.

"All the scientists and experts who were eliminated were significant sources of knowledge in the Iranian nuclear project and had decades of cumulative experience in the development of nuclear weapons," the military stated.

Those killed in the strikes were identified as Fereydoon Abbasi, a nuclear engineering expert; Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a physicist; Akbar Motalebi Zadeh, a chemical engineering expert; Saeed Barji, an expert in materials engineering; Amir Hassan Fakhahi, a physicist; Abd al-Hamid Minoushehr, an expert in reactor physics; Mansour Asgari, a physicist; Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari Daryani, a nuclear engineer; and Ali Bakhouei Katirimi, a mechanical expert.

The IDF added that many of them were considered successors to Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the late nuclear scientist widely regarded as the "father of the Iranian nuclear project," who was assassinated in 2020.

The Israeli military said that the scientists were killed in coordinated and simultaneous airstrikes on Tehran on Friday morning, in the same wave of attacks that also eliminated dozens of senior military commanders, including six top officials.

According to the IDF, these strikes were the result of years-long clandestine intelligence gathering focused on Iran's top nuclear minds.

"The elimination of the scientists was made possible following in-depth intelligence research that intensified over the past year as part of a classified and compartmentalised IDF plan," the IDF said.

It noted that dozens of intelligence researchers had worked on a secretive operation for years, tracking key figures in Iran's nuclear apparatus. (IANS)