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Mossad Recruited Top Iranian Scientists to Blow Up Key Nuclear Facility
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Jake Wallis Simons - Israel's Mossad intelligence agency recruited a team of Iranian nuclear scientists to carry out a covert operation which blew up the underground A1000 centrifuge hall at Natanz in April 2021, though they believed that they were working for international dissident groups. After the explosion, the scientists responsible were spirited away to a safe location. Some of the explosives used were dropped into the compound by a drone, while others were smuggled into the facility hidden in boxes of food on a catering truck. The explosion demolished 90% of the centrifuges, putting the complex out of action for up to nine months. In an earlier Mossad operation targeting the Iran Center for Advanced Centrifuges (ICAC) warehouse at Natanz, explosives were hidden in 2019 in building materials to be used in the centrifuge hall, then triggered on July 2, 2020. The warehouse had been used to precisely calibrate centrifuges and the blast destroyed a significant quantity of hardware. On June 23, 2021, an armed quadcopter, smuggled into Iran piece by piece, was used by a joint Iranian and Israeli team to launch missiles at the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company (TESA) in Karaj where advanced centrifuges were built. The drone was then piloted back to the team on the ground, who spirited it away to be used again. The three operations involved scores of agents on the ground. The revelations underline Israel's capacity for striking at the Iranian regime's most secret and strongly fortified sites.