(Bloomberg) -- A top Iranian nuclear scientist and a number of security guards were killed in an armed clash in eastern Tehran on Friday, in what may be a repeat of past assassinations that Iran blamed on Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in the Damavand area of the capital’s outskirts, the Islamic Republic News Network said. Fars news reported that between three and four others were killed in what it described as a “shootout.” Fakhrizadeh was named by United Nations in 2007 as involved in Iran’s “nuclear or ballistic missile activities.”

The killing comes at an extremely sensitive time in Iran as Donald Trump’s defeat in the Nov. 3 U.S. election offers an opportunity to reset ties with the West after years of spiraling tensions.

Axios reported this week that Israel’s government had instructed the military to prepare for a possible U.S. strike against Iran during the remainder of Trump’s term, though it noted the order wasn’t based on intelligence or an assessment that the U.S. would order an attack.

Four other Iranian nuclear scientists have been shot dead in Tehran since 2010.

The semi-official Mehr news agency said an explosion at a police station in the same district as the shootout but it was not immediately clear if the two incidents were linked.

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