Tehran, March 17, IRNA � Meir Dagan, former Director of the Zionist regime's intelligence service (Mossad), who was also behind assassination of a number of the Iranian nuclear scientists died Thursday at the age of 71 of cancer.

According to the Egyptian newspaper 'al-Youm al-Sabe,' Dagan had been confined to a hospital in Tel Aviv since last month. The hospital had been under tight security.

Dagan directed the Mossad from 2002 to 2011. Under his leadership, the spy agency reportedly carried out covert attacks against Iranian nuclear scientists. Killing of Imad Fayez Mughniyeh, senior military commander at Lebanon's Hezbollah and Mahmoud Mabhouh, senior military commander at Palestine's Hamas are another part of the dark records of his life.

By IRNA