The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have announced that nine Iranian nuclear scientists were killed in the opening wave of a large-scale military operation targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, which commenced early Friday. Describing the operation as a critical blow to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the IDF stated that the individuals targeted were pivotal figures in the Islamic Republic’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons capabilities. “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 Israeli military said in an official statement on Saturday. The scientists killed in the targeted airstrikes on Tehran were identified as: The IDF said many of these individuals were regarded as successors to Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the prominent Iranian nuclear scientist widely considered the architect of Iran’s nuclear programme, who was assassinated in 2020. According to the Israeli