IDF spokesman Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday that he was glad Iranian nuclear scientist Mustafa Ahmadi Roshn was assassinated.
"I do not know who brought the Iranian scientist to account," Mordechai wrote. "But I certainly won't shed a tear for him."
Professor Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, was officially an oil industry expert at Sharif University of Technology. The institution has in the past been linked with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
It is unclear how Roshan was connected to Iran's nuclear program, which the International Atomic Energy Association and Western nations say is dedicated to developing nuclear weapons.
On Wednesday a motorcycle reportedly pulled up alongside Roshan's Peugeot 405 car and attached "magnetic explosives" to it before riding away at a high rate of speed. Roshan and two passengers were reportedly killed in the blast.
The bombing, described by the news agency as a "terrorist attack," occurred as the scientist and his two passengers were already inside the locally-assembled Peugeot 405 car.
The attack, which follows a pattern of killings targeting key figures in Iran's nuclear program in recent years, has been attributed to both Israel's Mossad and the People's Mujahedin by various sources. Neither has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The People's Mujahedin of Iran, also known as the Mujahideen Khalq, is an underground of some 10,000 insurgents that has worked against the Islamic regime in Tehran for many years. It is widely credited with revealing Tehran's nuclear program in 2003.
Despite being listed as a terror organization by the United States the Mujahideen Khalq is believed to have ties to US intelligence. The United States repeatedly refused to shut down its base, Camp Ashraf, in Iraq prior to handing over power to the post-Saddam Hussein government.
In 2007 the BBC reported Iran was so concerned by Mujahideen Khalq operations that it had secretly offered to cut funding to Hamas and Hizbullah if the US closed the group's bases in the region.
According to Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff of Secretary of State Colin Powell, interviewed by the BBC, the State Department initially considered the offer, but it was ultimately rejected by the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.
In 2009 the new Iraqi government closed Camp Ashraf.
There have been numerous unconfirmed reports that the Mujahideen Khalq and Mossad have orchestrated a joint campaign aimed at thwarting Tehran's nuclear ambitions.