Hezbollah operative targeted Jews, Israelis in Peru

Peruvian authorities arrested a suspected Hezbollah operative in the capital of Lima earlier this week on suspicion of planning attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets.

The man, Mohammed Amadar, a Lebanese citizen, was apprehended in the street by anti-terror police, Haaretz reported Thursday, citing the local La Republica newspaper.

A search of his apartment discovered TNT, detonators and flammable substances.

The suspect had been gathering intelligence on places frequented by Israeli hikers and on Jewish institutions. Authorities said they were questioning Amadar to learn more about his intended targets.

According to the report, Amadar arrived in Peru in November 2013 and married a woman with both Peruvian and American citizenship just two weeks later. The couple left for Brazil and then planned to return to Peru in July this year.

Peruvian authorities were tipped off to Amadar’s alleged activities by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, and he was questioned after returning to Peru. Authorities kept him under constant surveillance, discovering that neither he nor his wife worked, but received Western Union money transfers, a method often used by Hezbollah.

In July 2012, an explosion outside an airport on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast killed five Israeli tourists, the Bulgarian bus driver and the bomber. Thirty-five people were wounded. Two years later, Bulgarian authorities identified the bomber as 23-year-old Mohamad Hassan el-Husseini, who was born in Lebanon.

Last year, Bulgaria accused Hezbollah of mounting the attack. It identified two Lebanese plotters as Meliad Farah, 32, who holds Australian citizenship, and Hassan El Hajj Hassan, 25, a Canadian citizen. Neither has been arrested.