Lebanese security forces and Hizbullah have arrested an Israeli trained cell of agents that attempted to strike Hizbullah and Palestinian leaders in Lebanon, according to a headline report in Lebanese-based A-Safir newspaper.
The agents' top target was Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.
The Tuesday report said a Palestinian female, in her 40s, from a Lebanese refugee camp, carrying a Tunisian passport, used to travel between Beirut and Tunisia and had been contacted by Israeli intelligence.
The woman, identified as Jamal Zaa'roura told interrogators that she was contacted by the Israeli intelligence through the Israeli commercial office in Tunis.
According to the report, the woman said the Israeli who recruited her identified himself as "Abdel Hafiz." She was later introduced to another person who told her that her mission would be to "gather intelligence in Lebanon."
She was told she needed to recruit other agents in Lebanon from various Arab nationalities other than Lebanese.
In Beirut, Zaa'roura had met an Egyptian man, Mujahed Yunis, who she felt was suitable for the "mission". Later, she was told by her Tunisian contacts that she would serve as the "link" between two cells that aimed to kill Hassan Nasrallah. One cell was commissioned to follow the Hizbullah leader's movements and the second was instructed to assassinate him.
She said the plan included sophisticated explosives, which were to be placed in suitcases. These explosives can't be monitored by regular machines. The plan also included use of poison material (as was used when Mossad agents attempted to kill Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in 1997).
It should be noted that in the past, Israeli agents attempted to kill Hizbullah chief Nasrallah, but failed to carry out their plan.(Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
