Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami says the country’s first COVID-19 test kits were produced in a research center headed by assassinated Iranian physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, hailing the martyr as one of the pioneers of the country’s scientific movement against the novel coronavirus.
Hatami made the remarks on Friday, hours after Fakhrizadeh, the head of the Defense Ministry's Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), was assassinated by terrorists in his vehicle in a small city east of the capital Tehran in an attack that also involved a car bombing.
“The organization under the management of Martyr Fakhrizadeh was among the first centers to produce the COVID-19 test kits,” the defense minister said.
When asked why the Iranian scientist was assassinated by terrorists, Hatami said that Fakhrizadeh was the deputy minister of defense, a prominent scientist, and the head of the SPND who had a long history in defense innovations and who trained many researchers for the scientific advancement of Iran.