Free Republic

In recent years, Hezbollah has stepped up its activities beyond Lebanon’s borders. This uptick has been clearest in the Middle East—in Iraq, Yemen, and especially Syria—but plots have also been thwarted in South America, Asia, Europe, and now, possibly, the United States. Reports of Hezbollah activity in North America are not new, though such reporting tends to focus on the group’s fundraising, money laundering, procurement, or other logistical activities from Vancouver to Miami. But last month, the criminal prosecution and conviction in New York of the Hezbollah operative Ali Kourani revealed disturbing new information about the extent of Hezbollah’s operations...

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Monday that Israel would always be "haunted by the blood" of Imad Mughniyeh, the group's former military leader who was killed in a Damascus car-bombing widely attributed to Israel in 2008. Speaking at an event commemorating Hezbollah's "martyrs," Nasrallah also spoke of Imad Mughniyeh's son, Jihad, as a martyr. Jihad Mughniyeh was killed in an airstrike on a Hezbollah convoy in southern Syria last month that has also been attributed to Israel. "The blood of the martyr Jihad has revived the memory of the commander Hajj Imad Mughniyeh and returned this brilliant and historic leader...

Is Iran’s Lebanese client losing its grip? Last week Hezbollah buried one of its princes, Jihad Mughniyeh, the 22-year-old son of the late Imad Mughniyeh, a legendary Hezbollah commander implicated in such infamous operations as the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. The assassination of the elder Mughniyeh in Damascus in 2008, typically attributed to Israel, is regarded as one of the organization’s most traumatic blows. However, some in the Shiite community here say that Israel’s January 18 strike on a three-car convoy in the Golan Heights near the Syrian town of Quneitra—which killed the younger Mughniyeh...

Supreme leader publishes pictures of him with slain Hezbollah commander and his father; Guards leader warns of ‘devastating lightning’ against Israel Iranian officials threatened harsh retaliation against Israel Tuesday over a reported airstrike two days earlier, as the country’s supreme leader highlighted his personal connection with Jihad Mughniyeh, a Hezbollah commander who was killed in the attack. Revolutionary Guards chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said that Israel should anticipate “devastating lightning,” according to the Iranian Tasnim news agency, and that Iran would widen its support for Muslim fighters in the Middle East “until the final collapse of the Zionist regime.” Several...

Reuters this evening published photos taken earlier today showing “Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif… lay[ing] a wreath at the grave of assassinated Hezbollah military commander” Imad Mughniyeh, a terrorist who was killed in 2008 after having spent literally decades killing Americans and others on behalf of his paymasters in Tehran. Celebrating a mass-murdering terrorist is a bad choice for any Foreign Minister, but the decision by Tehran’s top diplomat to so brazenly honor a terrorist like Mughniyeh, who killed hundreds of Americans, within hours of inking an agreement with the US and members of the P5+1 sends a very...

Cell seeks to avenge assassination of Imad Mughniyeh; attack could target Israelis in immediate future, security sources warn; Talal Hamia named as Hezbollah commander charged with carrying out strike. Hezbollah is planning a terrorist attack against Israelis abroad within days, security sources warned on Thursday night. The warning of the imminent attack did not mention specific locations. It was issued as many Israelis were abroad for the weeklong Pessah holiday. Security is being stepped up at potential Jewish and Israeli targets overseas, the sources said. They named Hezbollah operative Talal Hamia as the commander of a small but well-organized overseas...

Security officials in Jerusalem Thursday warned of Hezbollah terrorist attacks against Israeli targets overseas, saying that "a planned attack is already in motion," Channel 2 reported. The officials pointed to Hezbollah's strong desire to avenge the death of Hezbollah's chief of military operations Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008. According to the report, the urgency of the new terror warning was related to the anniversary of Mughniyeh's death. While Hezbollah's unit responsible for carrying out terror attacks overseas is not necessarily a large group, they are considered to be very dangerous and very effective, long having striven...

Police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld confirms two policemen had been shot dead Two Israeli traffic policemen have been shot dead near the West Bank town of Nablus and an operation is under way to try to catch the attacker or attackers. The dying officers were found in their overturned car in the Massua district of the Jordan Valley. It is the first fatal shooting of an Israeli in the West Bank since April of last year. A previously unknown group, named after a dead Lebanese Hezbollah leader, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Imad Mughniyeh Group, named after the man...

Two brothers held in Lebanon as Israeli spies are linked to a team responsible for the assassination of a notorious terrorist leader, Lebanese security sources have claimed. Ali Jarrah, 50, a Lebanese citizen, and his brother Youssef, from Marj in the Bekaa valley, were arrested last week by the Lebanese army, which charged them with espionage. A third suspect has also been held, sources close to the investigation said. All three face the death penalty. The spy ring has been linked to the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, a leading figure in Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite militia, who was killed in...

Hizbullah warned Friday that revenge for the death of the group's terror chief Imad Mughniyeh was not far off. "Hizbullah will soon avenge the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh," said Sheikh Ahmad Morad, a member of the Hizbullah leadership in southern Lebanon. "The revenge will be shocking and huge surprises are in store," he added. "We will not allow Israel and its generals to enjoy stability." Morad was speaking at a Hizbullah rally in southern Lebanon. Mughniyeh was killed in February in a car bomb in the heart of Damascus. Israel has denied involvement. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister's Office issued...

(IsraelNN.com) Syrian President Bashar Assad's top aide and adviser, General Mohammed Suleiman, was assassinated on Friday, according to Arab news sources. Suleiman, who was also Syria's liaison officer to the Hizbullah terrorist organization in Lebanon, was shot and killed by an unidentified sniper in the Syrian port city of Tartous. Syrian authorities tried unsuccessfully to prevent publication of the news. The country's Albawaba newspaper, which reported the incident, speculated that Israel might have been behind the killing. Both Albawaba and the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper raised the issue of last February's assassination of Hizbullah second-in-command Imad Mughniyeh, who died in a...

US and Canadian intelligence agencies warned Thursday that Hizbullah attacks on Jewish targets around the world could be imminent. ABC News quoted intelligence officials as saying that Hizbullah had activated sleeper cells in Canada, and that top terror operatives had left Lebanon for the US, Canada and Africa. According to the officials, Hizbullah wants to avenge February's assassination of its operations head Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus, for which the Shi'ite group holds Israel accountable. Israel has repeatedly denied the allegation. There was no reliable intelligence regarding the possible targets of such an attack, the sources told ABC News, adding, however,...

(IsraelNN.com) Syrian forces have arrested a Saudi official in connection with the killing of arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, according to Iran’s Fars news agency. The official who was detained is a senior defense official working in Damascus, said an Iranian source quoted in the Fars report. The source said that Israel planned the assassination, but that the killing itself was carried out by local Arabs with Syrian and Jordanian citizenship who rented apartments in Mughniyeh’s upscale Damascus neighborhood. Saudi Arabia was heavily involved, he said. The Saudi detainee is reportedly linked to a Syrian woman who is also suspected in the...

Damascus is preparing for a large-scale Israeli attack on Syria and Hizbullah, London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported Wednesday. According to the report, the Syrian army has been maneuvering its forces and drafting some of its reserve forces in preparation for such a contingency. Damascus has also raised the alert level along its borders, and has placed three armored divisions, nine infantry brigades and special forces near its border with Lebanon's Bekaa valley, fearing an Israeli infiltration there. The report claimed that this would be a strategic spot for Israeli ground forces to strike, as it is both a Hizbullah stronghold and...

"The one who killed our commander must be punished. The killers must be punished and they will be punished, God willing," Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Monday. In a televised address in Beirut to mark 40 days since the slaying of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh, Nasrallah drew cheers from the crowd saying, "We will choose the time, place and manner of punishment." Mughniyeh was killed in a car bombing in Damascus, in February. Hizbullah and Iran have accused Israel of the assassination. Israel has denied involvement. "We feel Mughniyeh's presence more than ever. Our brothers have found nothing...

Hezbollah is certain that Israel was behind last month's assassination of its senior commander Imad Mugniyeh, a state-backed Iranian television network reported on Saturday. According to the report, Hezbollah's Deputy Secretary General Sheik Naim Qassem reaffirmed that the movement has "100 percent solid evidence that Israel had killed martyr Mugniyeh", in a car bombing on February 12 in Damascus. Hezbollah also urged its supporters to hold a mass rally on Monday in the southern Beirut district of Rweiss to commemorate the slain commander. Similar accusations against Israel were made a few days after the assassination by the Hezbollah head of...

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's brother-in-law is suspected of engineering the assassination of Hizbullah's operations officer Imad Mughniyeh, according to a report Saturday in Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siasa ("Politics"). The news report appeared under the headline "Mughniyeh's elimination breaking the back of Damascus regime." The suspicions against the man, Colonel Wasef Shweikat, surfaced after his wife, Bashar Assad's sister Bushra, relocated to Paris with her children following the assassination. The move followed a split between Bashar and Bushra, which began when Mugniyeh informed Bashar of a plot against his regime. The paper said Shweikat met with a senior American intelligence officer in...

JERUSALEM: Israel has placed its security forces on higher alert, beefed up security at diplomatic missions abroad and advised Israeli travelers to put off trips to Muslim states for fear Lebanese militants will carry out a revenge attack at the upcoming end of the mourning period for an assassinated arch-terrorist, security officials say. Hezbollah and its Iranian patrons blame Israel for the Feb. 12 car bombing that killed Imad Mughniyeh, a Hezbollah leader suspected of masterminding a series of spectacular attacks against U.S. and Jewish targets. The Israeli government has denied the charge, although military officials have been vaguer, refusing...

A crackdown on leading clerics and politicians from Kuwait's Shiite minority has stoked sectarian tensions in the oil-rich Gulf state, raising questions about its aim and timing, analysts say. Claims that Shiite activists who took part in a controversial rally in February are seeking to topple the regime "amount to a sectarian campaign by the security agencies ... against prominent figures of the Shiite community," a group of leading Shiite clerics said in a statement. "If you're a Shiite in Kuwait, you have to swear five times a day after each prayer that you hate Iran and love Israel" in...

With Iranian leaders bombastically stating once again during February that Israel will soon be destroyed, Israel's top military leader warned mid-month that a decisive armed conflict could break out in the troubled region at any time. He added that it would be a major test over the resolve and preparedness of the country's regular and reserve armed forces. This came soon after the army, air force and navy were placed on heightened alert after the Lebanese Hizbullah militia vowed to avenge the assassination of its top military commander, which it blamed on Israel. Tensions escalated even further after the group's...