With tensions between Iran, Israel, and the United States running higher than ever, the Islamic Republic is losing many government officials to assassinations. But the assassinations aren’t just being conducted far from the Irani borders; many are taking place inside the country. This is sending warning signals through the Iranian security apparatus. 

The Iranian government is blaming Israel, and specifically the Mossad, for the assassinations. Therefore, this recent escalation could lead to widespread violence that would no doubt spread to include several other actors in the region.

From 2010 to 2012, four Iranian nuclear scientists, Masoud Alimohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad, and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, were assassinated, while another, Fereydoon Abbasi, was wounded in an assassination attempt. 

Iran arrested a number of its citizens in conjunction with those assassinations claiming that they were, in fact, working for Mossad and the Israeli government.

The Israelis reportedly stopped the targeted killings after the United States put diplomatic pressure on Tel Aviv. 

Back in August, the number two leader in al-Qaeda, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was gunned down in Tehran along with his daughter, Miriam, the widow of Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza bin Laden. Al-Masri was considered one of the masterminds behind the U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. Those bombings killed 224 people and wounded hundreds more. The United States had put a $10 million dollar bounty on his head. 

Coincidentally, al-Masri was assassinated on August 7, the anniversary date of the embassy bombings. 

Iran announced that the assassination of al-Masri was conducted by Israeli operatives at the behest of the United States. Neither Israel nor the U.S. commented on the situation, however, it is known that the U.S. has been tracking al-Qaeda operatives in Iran for quite some time.