The Iranian nuclear scientist killed last week was ambushed in a remotely controlled operation, the country’s top security official said Monday, describing an audacious attack that Tehran has blamed on Israel.

“The enemy used a completely new method, style and professional and specialized way to succeed in reaching its goal,” said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, at the funeral procession for the scientist Monday.

Israel hasn’t confirmed or denied its involvement. “The assassination in Iran, whoever did it, it serves not only Israel, but the whole region and the world,” Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s energy minister and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, told Kan public radio.

The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was traveling with his wife on Friday, the Iranian weekend, from the tranquil northern town of Rostamkola to Absard, a small town of cool weather and luxurious villas east of Tehran that is a popular vacation spot with the capital’s elite.

Entering Absard, the scientist’s four-car convoy took a U-turn on the highway around 2:30 p.m., and continued toward town. The convoy came under fire from a machine gun mounted on a Nissan pickup truck, which sprayed Mr. Fakhrizadeh’s car with bullets, leaving him wounded in the side and the back, with his spine severed, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency. The pickup truck then exploded, Fars reported.