Iran arrests 'some suspects’ in assassination of top nuclear scientist

Servants of the holy shrine of Imam Reza carry the coffin of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Mashhad, Iran. WANA via REUTERS

Servants of the holy shrine of Imam Reza carry the coffin of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Mashhad, Iran. WANA via REUTERS

Servants of the holy shrine of Imam Reza carry the coffin of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Mashhad, Iran. WANA via REUTERS

Servants of the holy shrine of Imam Reza sit near the coffin of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Mashhad, Iran. WANA via REUTERS

A coffin with an image of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, can be seen among the servants of the holy shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad. WANA via REUTERS

A coffin with an image of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, can be seen among the servants of the holy shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad. WANA via REUTERS

The scene of the attack that killed prominent Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, outside Tehran. WANA via REUTERS

Iranians walk past next to a huge poster of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in a street in Tehran. EPA

A protester holds a picture of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's top nuclear scientist, during a demonstration against his killing in Tehran. WANA via REUTERS

A protester holds a picture of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's top nuclear scientist, during a demonstration against his killing in Tehran. WANA via REUTERS

Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (R) during a meeting with Iranian supreme leader (unseen) in Tehran on January 23, 2019. EPA/IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER'S OFFICE HO

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points at a screen with an image of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh during a news conference at the Defence Ministry of in Tel Aviv on April 30, 2018. Reuters

The US Navy’s USS Nimitz aircraft carrier was ordered back to the Arabian Gulf to show capability as it withdraws troops from Afghanistan and Iraq and to deter adversaries moving against the US, US Fifth Fleet said. AFP PHOTO / US NAVY

Some of those involved in the assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist last month have been arrested, an adviser to the Iranian parliament speaker said on Tuesday, according to the semi-official news agency ISNA.

Iran has blamed Israel and a hardline opposition group for the November 27 killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was seen by Western intelligence services as the mastermind of a covert Iranian nuclear weapons programme. Tehran has long denied any such ambition. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the killing.

"The perpetrators of this assassination, some of whom have been identified and even arrested by the security services, will not escape justice," ISNA quoted adviser Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as telling Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam TV.

"Were the Zionists [Israel] able to do this alone and without the co-operation of, for example, the American [intelligence] service or another service? They certainly could not do that," Mr Amir-Abdollahian said.

Iran has given contradictory details of Fakhrizadeh's death in a daytime November 27 ambush on his car on a highway near the capital Tehran.

A senior Revolutionary Guards commander has said the killing was carried out remotely with artificial intelligence and a machinegun equipped with a "satellite-controlled smart system."

Witnesses earlier told state television that a truck had exploded before a group of gunmen opened fire on Fakhrizadeh's car.

Experts and officials told Reuters last week that Fakhrizadeh's killing exposed security gaps that suggest Iran's security forces may have been infiltrated and that the Islamic Republic is vulnerable to further attacks.