Mombasa bombing reveals possible al-Qa'eda-Hizbollah link

The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 12/08/2002 | Con Coughlin

[Pokey78]

For years, the idea of co-operation between Sunni and Shi'ite-backed terrorist groups in the Middle East and Africa was seen as unlikely. Now Con Coughlin reports on evidence that a new alliance has formed

Disturbing new evidence that Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda organisation has formed an alliance with the Iranian-backed Hizbollah militia has emerged in the wake of the Mombasa terrorist attacks.

Investigators looking into the bombing of the Paradise Hotel, which killed 16 people and injured 80, and the failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli charter jet, have uncovered a number of clues that suggest al-Qa'eda is working with the Lebanon-based Hizbollah militia to attack American and Israeli targets throughout the world.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Hizbollah, which is trained and funded by Teheran, was responsible for a number of devastating terrorist attacks including the 1983 suicide bombing of the American Marine barracks in Beirut, killing nearly 300 people.

It has now emerged that the terrorists responsible for last month's suicide bombing of the Paradise Hotel, who are now believed to be members of bin Laden's al-Qa'eda group, used the same techniques developed by Hizbollah in Lebanon in the 1980s.

Investigators working in Kenya have also discovered that the two SAM-7 missiles fired at the Israeli charter jet are of the same type used by Hizbollah fighters in southern Lebanon to attack Israeli targets.

They believe it was not just coincidence that the only claim for responsibility for the Mombasa attacks was made on a Hizbollah radio station.

"A clear pattern is emerging that suggests Hizbollah is actively co-operating with al-Qa'eda," said a Western official closely involved with the Mombasa investigation. "Hizbollah is very active in this part of Africa and shares similar objectives to al-Qa'eda ."

Investigators are particularly interested in the personal ties between Osama bin Laden and Imad Mugniyeh, the infamous Hizbollah terrorist who is in the top 10 of the FBI's list of most-wanted international criminals for his role in orchestrating numerous terrorist attacks against US targets in Lebanon.

Until recently, international terrorism experts have been sceptical about the possibility of Hizbollah co-operating with al-Qa'eda because of their different Islamic traditions: al-Qa'eda draws its support from mainstream Sunni Muslims, while Hizbollah is a Shi'ite Muslim organisation.

The evidence now emerging in the aftermath of the Mombasa attacks, however, suggests that there are clear links between the two organisations.

Western intelligence officials are re-examining the level of co-operation that exists between Mugniyeh and bin Laden, which is believed to date back to the mid-1990s when bin Laden and al-Qa'eda were located at a number of training camps in Sudan. Mugniyeh made a number of visits to Khartoum in 1995, 1996 and 1997, and met bin Laden several times.

The meetings were arranged at the request of bin Laden, who had been impressed by the devastating attacks carried out by Hizbollah against the US in Lebanon, particularly the effectiveness of the suicide truck bomb attacks against the US embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in the early 1980s.

The same tactic has since been used by al-Qa'eda in a number of attacks against US targets, starting with the 1996 suicide bomb attack against the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and including the simultaneous 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

More recent evidence linking Hizbollah and al-Qa'eda has been picked up by Western intelligence since bin Laden was forced to flee from Afghanistan at the end of last year.

Between 80 to 100 al-Qa'eda fighters who fled into Iran were provided with false passports by Hizbollah before being relocated to Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

At least 10 senior al-Qa'eda commanders are believed to have been sent to Lebanon, to enable them to liaise more closely with Hizbollah commanders in the Bekaa valley.

The American magazine Vanity Fair recently revealed that al-Qa'eda had established a base on the Argentine border close to the point where Hizbollah terrorists planned the 1993 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.

While al-Qa'eda 's presence in the Far East was confirmed by the bombing of a discotheque in Bali in October, Hizbollah is also known to have set up cells in the Far East, particularly in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.

Investigators in Kenya are now trying to establish whether there is any connection between those responsible for the Mombasa attacks and the arrest of suspected Hizbollah agents in Uganda in September, after it was discovered that a number of Ugandan students had travelled to Iran for training in various terrorist techniques.

[Angelus Errare]

If al-Qaeda and Hezbollah are involved, this means that Iran was involved as well. Hezbollah reports directly to the Iranian Committee on Actions Abroad, which authorizes all major terrorist operations. Imad Mugniyeh, Hezbollah's operations chief, is a high-ranking member of the Iranian Qods Force.

So much for all of the BS (and I've been saying it's BS for awhile now) about the ayatollahs getting cold feet about supporting terrorism.