Israeli intelligence names two more suspects
PTI
(New Delhi, September 20)
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Israeli intelligence has named two dreaded terrorists — Imad Mughniyeh of Lebanon and Ayman Al Zawahiri of Egypt — as masterminds behind last week’s attacks in the US.
Quoting Israel's military intelligence service Aman, Janes Intelligence Review said Iraq could be the state that sponsored the attacks and the two terrorists could be the masterminds behind the strikes.
"The two men have not been seen for sometime now. Mughniyeh is probably the world's most outlawed. Unconfirmed reports in Beirut say he has undergone plastic surgery and is unrecognisable," the report said, and quoted an Israeli intelligence official as saying that "Osama bin Laden is a schoolboy in comparison with Mughniyeh."
About Zawahiri, it said, he was a member of Bin Laden’s group Al-Qaeda, and a possible successor of the ailing Saudi terrorist.
On Iraq's role, the Jane's report quoted an Israeli intelligence official as saying that "the Iraqis were quick to discover the advantages of Al-Qaeda, and for past two years Iraqi intelligence officials were shuttling from Baghdad to Afghanistan and meeting Zawahiri."
It said the Iraqis were reported to have established strong ties with Mughniyeh.
"We have only got scraps of information but it was good enough for us to send a warning six weeks ago to our allies that an unprecedented massive terror was expected," the report quoted an Israeli intelligence source as saying.
The Janes report, quoting the Israeli source, said, "one of our indications suggested that Imad Mughniyeh met with some of his dormant agents on secret trip to Germany. We believe that the operational brains behind the New York attack were Mughniyeh and Zawahiri, who were probably financed and got some logistical support from the Iraqi Intelligence Service (SSO)."
Mughniyeh had made an attempt to blow up an Israeli airliner in 1997 above Tel Aviv but failed as the suicide bomber, a Lebanese travelling on a British passport, got seriously injured when the explosive detonated prematurely, the report said.
Mughniyeh, 48, is a "sick man" and considered by western intelligence agencies to be the most dangerous active terrorist today. He is wanted by several governments and the US has put a $2-million reward on his head, the report said.
Mughniyeh was allegedly involved in the 1984 kidnapping and killing of the CIA’s intelligence chief in Beirut, William Buckley. |
