Intelligence chief says more than 10 held over killing of nuclear physicist Masoud Ali Mohammadi have links with the Israeli spy agency

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

Iran's intelligence chief today claimed that more than 10 people arrested in connection with the killing of a nuclear physicist last year were linked to Israeli spy agency the Mossad.

Heidar Moslehi revealed few new details to bolster the claim, made a day earlier, that Tehran's investigation into the killing had led its agents to infiltrate the Mossad.

The Iranian intelligence ministry displayed communication devices, a bomb and several handguns – one fitted with a silencer – to reporters, saying they had been seized from the suspects.

Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a Tehran University physics professor, was killed by a bomb-rigged motorbike that exploded outside his houseas he was leaving for work last January.

It is unclear why he was targeted because he had no known link to Iran's nuclear programme.

In November twin bomb attacks in Tehran killed a nuclear scientist and wounded another. Both scientists were involved in the country's atomic work.

Moslehi said Israel was attempting to stop Muslim countries in the region from making scientific and nuclear advancements, adding that Israel-linked networks had set up bases in countries neighbouring Iran. "[Iran has] ... created intelligence bases next to them through which we could hit heavy blows to the group," he said without naming the countries.

He warned Iran's neighbours that Tehran would regard any co-operation with Israel as terrorism and a threat to the entire Middle East. Israel has ties with Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan and Qatar, all neighbours of Iran.

Iran had uncovered information about Israeli plots against other nations in the region, Moslehi said, and would share the intelligence with them.

Yesterday, Iranian state television broadcast a purported confession by one of those arrested, in which the unidentified man said he underwent training at a military camp between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem that taught him how to place bombs on cars. "Two new Iranian-made motorbikes were there ... They told me where to go, where to stop, who to call and how to do things back in Iran," he said.

Israel, the US and other nations suspect Iran is using its civil nuclear energy programme as cover for developing atomic weapons. Iran insists its nuclear work is entirely peaceful.