Israel claims strike killed nine Iranian scientists

The Israeli military says its recent air raids on Iran targeted senior figures in Tehran’s civilian nuclear programme, killing nine of the country’s top scientists.

“During the Israeli air force strikes at the onset of Operation Rising Lion, nine senior scientists and experts, who advanced the Iranian regime's nuclear weapons programme, were eliminated,” the army said in a statement, listing those killed by name.

The military called it a “significant blow” to Iran’s capacity to develop nuclear weapons claiming the strikes were based on “precise intelligence gathered by the intelligence directorate”.

There is no evidence that Iranian has been working on nuclear weapons.