7 aug 2018
New York Times quotes Middle East intelligence source as saying the Israeli spy agency planted the bomb in Dr. Aziz Asber's car, killing him and his driver; Asber, according to the report, was working on turning Syrian missiles into precision-guided missiles.
The Israeli Mossad was reportedly behind the assassination of Syrian missile scientist Dr. Aziz Asber, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing a senior Middle East intelligence source.
Asber was killed in an explosion in his car along with his driver several minutes after leaving his home in Hama on Saturday night.
After watching him for months, the Mossad reportedly planted a bomb in his car, according to the report by David M. Halbfinger and Ronen Bergman.
The source quoted by the Times, a member of an intelligence agency in the Middle East that was updated on the operation, said this was the fourth time over the past three years that Israel had eliminated a weapons scientist at a foreign nation.
By Israeli law, only the prime minister can authorize an assassination operation by the Mossad. Spokespeople for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman declined to respond to the Times report.
Some six months ago, Lieberman noted that "there are hundreds of explosions and assassinations in the Middle East every day, and every time they try to pin it on Israel."
Dr. Asber was involved in Syria's chemical weapons development as well as in the Iranian Fateh missiles program. He worked on the development of medium- and long-range missiles as well as building a solid-fuel plant for missiles and rockets.
He headed Sector 4, a top-secret unit at the Scientific Studies and Research Center in Masyaf developing rockets and ballistic missiles, where he was working on retrofitting the Syrian SM600 Tishreen to turn them into precision-guided missiles with the help of Iran's Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani.
Israel has been working to foil Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, fearing that when the civil war raging in the country is over, the pro-Iranian Shiite militias helping the regime of President Bashar Assad, including Hezbollah, would turn their sights on Israel.
According to the Times, Asber was also working in recent years on the construction of a new underground weapons factory to replace the
one destroyed in an Israeli strike last year.
He was considered a close associate of Syrian President Bashar Assad and worked directly under him, with no mediation. He also had close ties with Iranian and North Korean scientists as well as with Hezbollah. He was also involved in coordinating Iranian and Hezbollah operations in Syria, according to the Times.
An official from the pro-Syrian alliance told the Times he believed Israel targeted Asber because of the central role he had in Syria's missile program, even before the eruption of the 7-years-old civil war.
In recent years, the Israeli Air Force has attacked many targets in Syria—belonging to both the Syrian regime and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards—which were defined as strategic threats.
Recently, Israel learned the Scientific Studies and Research Center has become home to arms factories producing weapons for Syria, Hezbollah and IRGC forces in Syria.
Last September, Israel attacked the main factory run by Dr. Asber in Masyaf. Iranians began re-building the same plant this summer, this time underground, and industrial machines brought in for the plant were moved to storage elsewhere. Many of them were destroyed in a missile attack on July 22.
The Scientific Studies and Research Center in Syria has been under Western surveillance for a long time, and both the United States and France have imposed economic sanctions on it.
Prior to the Syrian civil war, the center both produced and stored chemical weapons in various sites that have either been destroyed or abandoned. Some 10,000 workers were employed, developing and manufacturing biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
In a previous bombing of one of the center’s storage facility in Al-Safir, 15 Syrians and Iranians were killed, an action that Damascus blamed on Israel. Even though Israel has never assumed responsibility for both this bombing or the current assassination on Syrian soil, the Mossad has a long history of assassinating weapon scientists who have been perceived as a threat.
In the late 1970s, Mossad agents stabbed an Egyptian scientist to death, and poisoned two Iraqi developers working on the Saddam Hussein nuclear program.
In 1990, the Mossad assassinated a Canadian rocket scientist who was working on a type of super-cannon, which could launch shells from Iraq to Tel Aviv.
In the past 11 years, six Iranians, most of whom were involved in the Iran nuclear program, were assassinated.
General Hassan Muqaddam, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard research and development unit, who was in charge of the missile program, was assassinated seven years ago along with 16 of his men in an office building they were working from.
It has previously been reported that Israel was also behind the assassination of other Syrian civilians: One of whom was associated with the Assad regime nuclear program, and was assassinated in 2008.
In addition, a senior Hamas official who was responsible for acquiring sophisticated weapons from Iran was assassinated in Dubai in 2010. Hezbollah's head of research and development was assassinated in Beirut in 2013 and two Hamas scientists were assassinated in 2016 in Kuala Lumpur and Tunis.
The Israeli Mossad was reportedly behind the assassination of Syrian missile scientist Dr. Aziz Asber, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing a senior Middle East intelligence source.
Asber was killed in an explosion in his car along with his driver several minutes after leaving his home in Hama on Saturday night.
After watching him for months, the Mossad reportedly planted a bomb in his car, according to the report by David M. Halbfinger and Ronen Bergman.
The source quoted by the Times, a member of an intelligence agency in the Middle East that was updated on the operation, said this was the fourth time over the past three years that Israel had eliminated a weapons scientist at a foreign nation.
By Israeli law, only the prime minister can authorize an assassination operation by the Mossad. Spokespeople for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman declined to respond to the Times report.
Some six months ago, Lieberman noted that "there are hundreds of explosions and assassinations in the Middle East every day, and every time they try to pin it on Israel."
Dr. Asber was involved in Syria's chemical weapons development as well as in the Iranian Fateh missiles program. He worked on the development of medium- and long-range missiles as well as building a solid-fuel plant for missiles and rockets.
He headed Sector 4, a top-secret unit at the Scientific Studies and Research Center in Masyaf developing rockets and ballistic missiles, where he was working on retrofitting the Syrian SM600 Tishreen to turn them into precision-guided missiles with the help of Iran's Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani.
Israel has been working to foil Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, fearing that when the civil war raging in the country is over, the pro-Iranian Shiite militias helping the regime of President Bashar Assad, including Hezbollah, would turn their sights on Israel.
According to the Times, Asber was also working in recent years on the construction of a new underground weapons factory to replace the
one destroyed in an Israeli strike last year.
He was considered a close associate of Syrian President Bashar Assad and worked directly under him, with no mediation. He also had close ties with Iranian and North Korean scientists as well as with Hezbollah. He was also involved in coordinating Iranian and Hezbollah operations in Syria, according to the Times.
An official from the pro-Syrian alliance told the Times he believed Israel targeted Asber because of the central role he had in Syria's missile program, even before the eruption of the 7-years-old civil war.
In recent years, the Israeli Air Force has attacked many targets in Syria—belonging to both the Syrian regime and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards—which were defined as strategic threats.
Recently, Israel learned the Scientific Studies and Research Center has become home to arms factories producing weapons for Syria, Hezbollah and IRGC forces in Syria.
Last September, Israel attacked the main factory run by Dr. Asber in Masyaf. Iranians began re-building the same plant this summer, this time underground, and industrial machines brought in for the plant were moved to storage elsewhere. Many of them were destroyed in a missile attack on July 22.
The Scientific Studies and Research Center in Syria has been under Western surveillance for a long time, and both the United States and France have imposed economic sanctions on it.
Prior to the Syrian civil war, the center both produced and stored chemical weapons in various sites that have either been destroyed or abandoned. Some 10,000 workers were employed, developing and manufacturing biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
In a previous bombing of one of the center’s storage facility in Al-Safir, 15 Syrians and Iranians were killed, an action that Damascus blamed on Israel. Even though Israel has never assumed responsibility for both this bombing or the current assassination on Syrian soil, the Mossad has a long history of assassinating weapon scientists who have been perceived as a threat.
In the late 1970s, Mossad agents stabbed an Egyptian scientist to death, and poisoned two Iraqi developers working on the Saddam Hussein nuclear program.
In 1990, the Mossad assassinated a Canadian rocket scientist who was working on a type of super-cannon, which could launch shells from Iraq to Tel Aviv.
In the past 11 years, six Iranians, most of whom were involved in the Iran nuclear program, were assassinated.
General Hassan Muqaddam, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard research and development unit, who was in charge of the missile program, was assassinated seven years ago along with 16 of his men in an office building they were working from.
It has previously been reported that Israel was also behind the assassination of other Syrian civilians: One of whom was associated with the Assad regime nuclear program, and was assassinated in 2008.
In addition, a senior Hamas official who was responsible for acquiring sophisticated weapons from Iran was assassinated in Dubai in 2010. Hezbollah's head of research and development was assassinated in Beirut in 2013 and two Hamas scientists were assassinated in 2016 in Kuala Lumpur and Tunis.
26 july 2018
According to Le Monde, the Israeli spy agency set up an operations room in the French capital for Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's assassination in Dubai, among other missions; 'French hands are tied, our ability to respond to their actions is limited,' complains French intelligence official.
Paris has become a center of operations for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, according to an article published this week in French newspaper Le Monde.
The article, titled "The Mossad's shadow hovers over Paris," cites senior French intelligence officials, one of whom claimed that "The city is the Mossad's playground. The Chinese and the Russians may be our enemies, but let us not forget the Israelis and the Americans are also conducting themselves with great aggression."
"Our ability to respond to their actions is limited because they rush to use the 'diplomatic card' and complain to the French prime minister and president's offices," the French intelligence official vented.
"France's hands are tied" since it depends on Israel "in many sensitive issues," he said. The French, he added, were "also limited in our ability to prevent some elements in the Jewish community in France from aiding them (the Mossad) with planning and logistics."
One operation the French intelligence officials say was led from Paris was the assassination of Hamas senior official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied it was behind al-Mabhouh's assassination.
According to Le Monde, the Mossad set up a makeshift operations room equipped with computers and secure phones at a hotel room in the French capital's Bercy neighborhood—not far from the French Finance Ministry and other government buildings.
While only two of the 11 foreign agents who allegedly took part in the daring assassination—"Kevin" and "Gail"—reportedly arrived in Dubai on an Air France flight from Paris, foreign media has so far believed the operation was led from Austria or another European location. Le Monde, however, reports Israel's control and command center was in the heart of Paris.
Paris has become a center of operations for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, according to an article published this week in French newspaper Le Monde.
The article, titled "The Mossad's shadow hovers over Paris," cites senior French intelligence officials, one of whom claimed that "The city is the Mossad's playground. The Chinese and the Russians may be our enemies, but let us not forget the Israelis and the Americans are also conducting themselves with great aggression."
"Our ability to respond to their actions is limited because they rush to use the 'diplomatic card' and complain to the French prime minister and president's offices," the French intelligence official vented.
"France's hands are tied" since it depends on Israel "in many sensitive issues," he said. The French, he added, were "also limited in our ability to prevent some elements in the Jewish community in France from aiding them (the Mossad) with planning and logistics."
One operation the French intelligence officials say was led from Paris was the assassination of Hamas senior official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied it was behind al-Mabhouh's assassination.
According to Le Monde, the Mossad set up a makeshift operations room equipped with computers and secure phones at a hotel room in the French capital's Bercy neighborhood—not far from the French Finance Ministry and other government buildings.
While only two of the 11 foreign agents who allegedly took part in the daring assassination—"Kevin" and "Gail"—reportedly arrived in Dubai on an Air France flight from Paris, foreign media has so far believed the operation was led from Austria or another European location. Le Monde, however, reports Israel's control and command center was in the heart of Paris.
Al-Mabhouh's assassination in Dubai (Photo: Reuters)
The January 2010 assassination caused international outrage and a diplomatic crisis with Britain over the use of European passports.
France also complained to then-Mossad director Meir Dagan about the use of forged French passports.
According to Le Monde, the French were concerned Hamas would suspect France took part in the assassination.
Paris sent two senior agents to meet with Dagan in Jerusalem. "We'll stay friends, but there'll be a price to pay for this," they told him. The price is believed to have been a halt to the exchange of information between Israeli and French intelligence.
"It was a way to send a message that this was an intolerable line crossing," said the head of the French police's investigations department.
Speaking to Yedioth Ahronoth, the Le Monde article's writer, journalist Jacques Follorou, said French intelligence officials were outraged by the alleged use of French passports, seeing it as a "provocation."
In addition to Al-Mabhouh's assassination, the article examines many other operations that Le Monde claims the Mossad and other Israeli elements conducted from French soil, including: a joint Israeli-French attempt to recruit a Syrian agent who tried to buy chemical weapons, an Israeli company's attempt to wiretap Council of Europe meetings in Brussels, and operations of the company Black Cube, which had offices in Paris's Place Vendôme.
The Mossad, according to the Le Monde report, also tried to recruit French intelligence agents as double agents during a joint operation in 2010. As a result of that alleged incident, Le Monde claims the Mossad station head in Paris and another employee in the Israeli Embassy had to leave France.
The reason the Mossad—like many other foreign intelligence agencies including the CIA—has turned Paris into its center of operations is because it hosts many international conference and frequent visits of African leaders. Furthermore, the city is home to many foreigners.
Another reason, according to a source in French intelligence, is that "France dedicates most of its espionage activities to the fight against terrorism, therefore it doesn't have enough manpower for counter-espionage."
While the Mossad, according to Le Monde, continues operating in Paris with relative freedom, a source in the French Foreign Ministry admitted that "the Israelis are a little bit more cautious than before." They no longer carry out assassinations on French soil and don't use the help of the French Jewish community as often.
The January 2010 assassination caused international outrage and a diplomatic crisis with Britain over the use of European passports.
France also complained to then-Mossad director Meir Dagan about the use of forged French passports.
According to Le Monde, the French were concerned Hamas would suspect France took part in the assassination.
Paris sent two senior agents to meet with Dagan in Jerusalem. "We'll stay friends, but there'll be a price to pay for this," they told him. The price is believed to have been a halt to the exchange of information between Israeli and French intelligence.
"It was a way to send a message that this was an intolerable line crossing," said the head of the French police's investigations department.
Speaking to Yedioth Ahronoth, the Le Monde article's writer, journalist Jacques Follorou, said French intelligence officials were outraged by the alleged use of French passports, seeing it as a "provocation."
In addition to Al-Mabhouh's assassination, the article examines many other operations that Le Monde claims the Mossad and other Israeli elements conducted from French soil, including: a joint Israeli-French attempt to recruit a Syrian agent who tried to buy chemical weapons, an Israeli company's attempt to wiretap Council of Europe meetings in Brussels, and operations of the company Black Cube, which had offices in Paris's Place Vendôme.
The Mossad, according to the Le Monde report, also tried to recruit French intelligence agents as double agents during a joint operation in 2010. As a result of that alleged incident, Le Monde claims the Mossad station head in Paris and another employee in the Israeli Embassy had to leave France.
The reason the Mossad—like many other foreign intelligence agencies including the CIA—has turned Paris into its center of operations is because it hosts many international conference and frequent visits of African leaders. Furthermore, the city is home to many foreigners.
Another reason, according to a source in French intelligence, is that "France dedicates most of its espionage activities to the fight against terrorism, therefore it doesn't have enough manpower for counter-espionage."
While the Mossad, according to Le Monde, continues operating in Paris with relative freedom, a source in the French Foreign Ministry admitted that "the Israelis are a little bit more cautious than before." They no longer carry out assassinations on French soil and don't use the help of the French Jewish community as often.
16 mar 2018
Russian double agent Sergei Skripal (L) and his daughter Yulia were in critical condition after a nerve agent attack
Despite commitments by Moscow in the 1980s that it would dispose of its chemical weapons and refrain from developing them, Israel attempted to inform the Kremlin that its chief scientist was secretly selling development know-how to the Syrians. When the warnings were ignored, the scientist mysteriously died on a plane.
One of the heads of the Russian chemical weapons program and the individual who was considered to be the head of the Novichok project—which saw the development of a series of nerve agents by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s ultimately used on UK soil earlier this month against former Russian agent Sergei Skripal—was for many years in the sights of an Israeli intelligence analyst.
Russia had already begun developing chemical weapons by the end of the Second World War, and possibly even beforehand. At the beginning of the 1970s, the country’s scientists began creating more lethal nerve agents, among them the “Novichok,” the production of which was overseen by General Anatoly Kuntsevich—a physics and organic chemicals expert considered to be one of the foremost expert in the field in the Soviet Union.
In the middle of the 1980s, under General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union declared that it would sign the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons. In 1987 the Soviet government announced that it would unilaterally bring to a halt its production and in 1989, Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze said that his country would “completely” abandon its production of poison gas.
Over the next decade, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and under the rule of President Boris Yeltsin, Russia experienced an economic collapse and was in need of help from the West.
The United States demanded that it be involved in disarming of weapons of mass destruction, especially chemical weapons, and Yeltsin appointed General Kuntsevich to serve as his liaison with the West. However, Russia apparently disposed of only part of its chemical weapons arsenal and proof of the fact that it failed to relinquish control of all the materials necessary for producing them quickly became knowledge among spies and journalists in the West.
Will Englund, a writer for the Baltimore Sun, published testimonies by a number of scientists and exposed the existence of the “Novichok.” One of the scientists accidentally touched the material and died. Others followed. Those who survived were prosecuted for speaking to Englund. A Russian banker and his secretary were killed after a small quantity of the material was spread on the handset of their telephones. The Russians insisted, however, as they are doing today, that they do not possess any such weapon. “We play by the rules,” Kuntsevich said at the time.
In the 1990s, worrying information began arriving in Israel indicating that Russia was conducting experiments for the development of chemical weapons more advanced than the simple mustard and nerve gases that they once had.
According to the information, the knowledge to produce the advanced weapons was supplied by Kuntsevich. It would seem that his business with the Syrians was not a government initiative but rather an attempt by him to look after his own interests.
In July 1995, under the guise of a regular work visit as part of the positive military relations that remained between the two countries, he began to establish personal connections with leaders in Syria, and received huge sums of money in exchange for divulging his knowledge and providing some of his equipment for developing deadly chemical weapons.
Some of the details of the deals reached the Israeli Mossad at the end of the 1990s. The Israeli prime minister at the time, Ehud Barak, tried to warn leaders in Moscow about their general’s clandestine scheming but it was to no avail. It was believed that Yeltsin either could not, or did not want, to intervene.
In the book “The Volunteer”, which was published in Canada by "Michael Ross", the author testifies that he was a Mossad agent and that when Israel realized that the pressure was not working, he was asked to pretend to be an independent researcher preparing to produce a documentary about gas warfare.
Ross claimed that he repeatedly contacted senior officials in the Kremlin and told them that according to the information in his possession, chemical weapons were being sold by Kuntsevich to the Syrians. The intention was to scare Moscow since the information was soon to be publicized. But this effort too, failed to yield results.
Israel was furious. On 29 April, 2002, in circumstances that remain unknown, Kuntsevich died during a flight from Aleppo to Moscow. The Syrians appear to be confident that the Israeli intelligence had succeeded in reaching and poisoning the general.
A top secret CIA document from the same period says that Syria managed, by the time of his death, to produce a large stockpile of particularly lethal chemical weapons. According to various other sources, during his final visit to Syria, Kuntsevich brought with him the blueprints for developing the “Novichok”. If Kuntsevich had not died on the way back to Moscow, the problems facing the West and particularly Israel could have been significantly more serious.
The chemical weapon that was produced as a result of Kuntsevich’s activities, so the Syrians claimed, were to be disposed of at a later date as part of a deal brokered by the Russians, in order to prevent an American strike.
It as this deal that led to Russia’s heavy military involvement in the Syra and transforming into a major influential power in the region.
Despite commitments by Moscow in the 1980s that it would dispose of its chemical weapons and refrain from developing them, Israel attempted to inform the Kremlin that its chief scientist was secretly selling development know-how to the Syrians. When the warnings were ignored, the scientist mysteriously died on a plane.
One of the heads of the Russian chemical weapons program and the individual who was considered to be the head of the Novichok project—which saw the development of a series of nerve agents by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s ultimately used on UK soil earlier this month against former Russian agent Sergei Skripal—was for many years in the sights of an Israeli intelligence analyst.
Russia had already begun developing chemical weapons by the end of the Second World War, and possibly even beforehand. At the beginning of the 1970s, the country’s scientists began creating more lethal nerve agents, among them the “Novichok,” the production of which was overseen by General Anatoly Kuntsevich—a physics and organic chemicals expert considered to be one of the foremost expert in the field in the Soviet Union.
In the middle of the 1980s, under General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union declared that it would sign the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons. In 1987 the Soviet government announced that it would unilaterally bring to a halt its production and in 1989, Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze said that his country would “completely” abandon its production of poison gas.
Over the next decade, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and under the rule of President Boris Yeltsin, Russia experienced an economic collapse and was in need of help from the West.
The United States demanded that it be involved in disarming of weapons of mass destruction, especially chemical weapons, and Yeltsin appointed General Kuntsevich to serve as his liaison with the West. However, Russia apparently disposed of only part of its chemical weapons arsenal and proof of the fact that it failed to relinquish control of all the materials necessary for producing them quickly became knowledge among spies and journalists in the West.
Will Englund, a writer for the Baltimore Sun, published testimonies by a number of scientists and exposed the existence of the “Novichok.” One of the scientists accidentally touched the material and died. Others followed. Those who survived were prosecuted for speaking to Englund. A Russian banker and his secretary were killed after a small quantity of the material was spread on the handset of their telephones. The Russians insisted, however, as they are doing today, that they do not possess any such weapon. “We play by the rules,” Kuntsevich said at the time.
In the 1990s, worrying information began arriving in Israel indicating that Russia was conducting experiments for the development of chemical weapons more advanced than the simple mustard and nerve gases that they once had.
According to the information, the knowledge to produce the advanced weapons was supplied by Kuntsevich. It would seem that his business with the Syrians was not a government initiative but rather an attempt by him to look after his own interests.
In July 1995, under the guise of a regular work visit as part of the positive military relations that remained between the two countries, he began to establish personal connections with leaders in Syria, and received huge sums of money in exchange for divulging his knowledge and providing some of his equipment for developing deadly chemical weapons.
Some of the details of the deals reached the Israeli Mossad at the end of the 1990s. The Israeli prime minister at the time, Ehud Barak, tried to warn leaders in Moscow about their general’s clandestine scheming but it was to no avail. It was believed that Yeltsin either could not, or did not want, to intervene.
In the book “The Volunteer”, which was published in Canada by "Michael Ross", the author testifies that he was a Mossad agent and that when Israel realized that the pressure was not working, he was asked to pretend to be an independent researcher preparing to produce a documentary about gas warfare.
Ross claimed that he repeatedly contacted senior officials in the Kremlin and told them that according to the information in his possession, chemical weapons were being sold by Kuntsevich to the Syrians. The intention was to scare Moscow since the information was soon to be publicized. But this effort too, failed to yield results.
Israel was furious. On 29 April, 2002, in circumstances that remain unknown, Kuntsevich died during a flight from Aleppo to Moscow. The Syrians appear to be confident that the Israeli intelligence had succeeded in reaching and poisoning the general.
A top secret CIA document from the same period says that Syria managed, by the time of his death, to produce a large stockpile of particularly lethal chemical weapons. According to various other sources, during his final visit to Syria, Kuntsevich brought with him the blueprints for developing the “Novichok”. If Kuntsevich had not died on the way back to Moscow, the problems facing the West and particularly Israel could have been significantly more serious.
The chemical weapon that was produced as a result of Kuntsevich’s activities, so the Syrians claimed, were to be disposed of at a later date as part of a deal brokered by the Russians, in order to prevent an American strike.
It as this deal that led to Russia’s heavy military involvement in the Syra and transforming into a major influential power in the region.
27 jan 2018
The Lebanese Interior Ministry on Friday confirmed Israel's involvement in the car bomb attack that targeted a Hamas official in the southern city of Sidon nearly two weeks ago.
The information office of Lebanon's Interior Minister, Nohad Machnouk, said in a statement that the information division has completed the investigation and it now has the full scenario of the assassination attempt.
The office pointed out that the Ministry was able to find one of the main perpetrators of the crime who admitted that he was tasked by the Mossad to carry out the attack.
Last Tuesday Turkey handed over to the Lebanese authorities the suspect in the failed assassination attempt Mohammed Beitieh. The Lebanese newspaper al-Diyar said that the Turkish authorities decided to hand Beitieh over after they arrested him in Istanbul based on a request by the Lebanese Interior Ministry.
The Information office affirmed that advanced communication devices containing regular letters between Beitieh and those who recruited him were found in Beitieh's house.
About ten days ago, the Hamas official Mohammed Hamdan was injured after his car exploded in Sidon city. Hamas Movement then affirmed that the initial investigation indicates that Israel is behind the attack.
The information office of Lebanon's Interior Minister, Nohad Machnouk, said in a statement that the information division has completed the investigation and it now has the full scenario of the assassination attempt.
The office pointed out that the Ministry was able to find one of the main perpetrators of the crime who admitted that he was tasked by the Mossad to carry out the attack.
Last Tuesday Turkey handed over to the Lebanese authorities the suspect in the failed assassination attempt Mohammed Beitieh. The Lebanese newspaper al-Diyar said that the Turkish authorities decided to hand Beitieh over after they arrested him in Istanbul based on a request by the Lebanese Interior Ministry.
The Information office affirmed that advanced communication devices containing regular letters between Beitieh and those who recruited him were found in Beitieh's house.
About ten days ago, the Hamas official Mohammed Hamdan was injured after his car exploded in Sidon city. Hamas Movement then affirmed that the initial investigation indicates that Israel is behind the attack.
26 jan 2018
Turkey has handed over a suspect in last week’s bomb attack, which targeted a leading Hamas member in the Lebanese city of Sidon, to Lebanon, a Lebanese newspaper announced Thursday.
"The intelligence branch of Lebanon’s Internal Security Agency has received Ahmed Bitiyya, a suspect in last week’s assassination attempt on Hamas member Mohamed Hamdan," al-Diyar Lebanese newspaper reported.
According to the newspaper, Turkey decided to hand over Bitiyya to the Lebanese Interior Security after he was arrested in Istanbul upon request by the Lebanese authorities.
Lebanese security forces have subjected Bitiyya to investigation to identify a group of four individuals suspected of involvement in the January 14 bomb attack, which targeted Hamdan in Sidon.
Based on the investigation, the four suspects had fled outside Lebanon.
"The intelligence branch of Lebanon’s Internal Security Agency has received Ahmed Bitiyya, a suspect in last week’s assassination attempt on Hamas member Mohamed Hamdan," al-Diyar Lebanese newspaper reported.
According to the newspaper, Turkey decided to hand over Bitiyya to the Lebanese Interior Security after he was arrested in Istanbul upon request by the Lebanese authorities.
Lebanese security forces have subjected Bitiyya to investigation to identify a group of four individuals suspected of involvement in the January 14 bomb attack, which targeted Hamdan in Sidon.
Based on the investigation, the four suspects had fled outside Lebanon.
14 jan 2018
A Palestinian official was reportedly injured on Sunday in a car bomb blast in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.
Sidon mayor told Voice of Lebanon radio that the blast took place as the injured man, identified as Mohammed Hamdan, opened the door of his booby-trapped car, adding that no one else was hurt in the explosion.
Hamas movement, talking to Lebanese media outlets, denied the news that one of its leaders was killed in Sidon attack.
For his part, the Hamas official in Sidon Ayman Shana'a said that Hamdan, who is a senior Hamas official, was taken to the hospital for treatment after being slightly injured in the leg.
Sidon mayor told Voice of Lebanon radio that the blast took place as the injured man, identified as Mohammed Hamdan, opened the door of his booby-trapped car, adding that no one else was hurt in the explosion.
Hamas movement, talking to Lebanese media outlets, denied the news that one of its leaders was killed in Sidon attack.
For his part, the Hamas official in Sidon Ayman Shana'a said that Hamdan, who is a senior Hamas official, was taken to the hospital for treatment after being slightly injured in the leg.
