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Iran makes arrests over nuclear scientist’s assassination

TEHRAN — Iran made arrests over a scientist’s assassination last week blamed on Israel and the US, parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Monday.

He did not specify how many people were arrested, when the arrests were made or give any details on the suspects’ identities or nationalities.

“We have discovered some clues, and some arrests have been made. Investigations are ongoing,” Larijani told Iran’s Arabic-language broadcaster Al Alam.

Various Iranian officials blamed Israel and the US for the Jan. 11 killing of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a 32-year-old deputy director of Iran’s main uranium enrichment plant.

Ahmadi Roshan died along with his driver after assassins on a motorcycle fixed a magnetic bomb to his car.

It was the fifth such attack targeting Iran’s scientists in the past two years. Four other scientists — three of them involved in Iran’s nuclear program — died in the attacks, while one managed to escape.

Iranian military commanders said they were looking at “punishing” those responsible.

But Larijani said Iran would not resort to terrorism to take its revenge.

“We will not hesitate in punishing the Zionist regime [Israel] so that it realizes such actions have clear responses. There will definitely be a response, but our action will be of a non-terrorist nature,” he said.

On Saturday, the deputy chief of Iran’s joint armed forces, Masoud Jazayeri, said Iran was mulling a response to hold the US, Israel and Britain “accountable” for their perceived involvement in the attacks.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday blamed the US and Israeli intelligence services for the latest killing.

Washington issued strongly-worded denials of any role in the murders. Israel, widely seen as the prime suspect, neither denied nor confirmed involvement, in line with its policy of not commenting on intelligence matters.