War of the spies as Israel and Hezbollah prepare for confrontation
ebruary 23, 2009
War of the spies as Israel and Hezbollah prepare for confrontation
Nicholas Blanford in Beirut
A barrage of rockets at the weekend and the recent arrests of alleged spies have exposed a deadly covert war waged between the Jewish state and Hezbollah, Lebanon's militant Shia organisation.
Two rockets launched from southern Lebanon on Saturday ruptured an uneasy calm that had reigned along the border since the month-long conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. Only one missile reached Israel, wounding a woman. Israel responded by firing artillery shells.
Even before the flare-up, Hezbollah and Israel had been busy making plans for what many believe will be an inevitable fresh confrontation. Israel's efforts focus on penetrating Hezbollah's notoriously tight security to learn of the group's battle plans and assassinate its senior leadership. Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah's veteran military commander, was killed in February last year when his car exploded in Damascus, a murder widely believed to have been the work of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency.
Lebanese newspapers reported last week that an employee of Middle East Airlines, Lebanon's flag carrier, who went missing nine days ago, allegedly had links to Israel. Yussef Sader was thought to have been kidnapped on his way to work at Beirut airport.
Two Lebanese newspapers have claimed that Mr Sader is in the custody of Lebanese military intelligence, although the army denies that it is holding him.
It also emerged last week that another suspected Mossad agent was arrested when military intelligence officers raided a petrol station near Nabatiyah in south Lebanon. Marwan Faqih, the owner of the garage, was reportedly detained by Hezbollah last month before being handed over to the Lebanese authorities. He was said to have told interrogators that he was recruited by Mossad in France in the mid-1990s.
He had won the trust of Hezbollah officials in Nabatiyah by donating money to the organisation's charities and providing cars for Hezbollah.
Hezbollah's highly effective counter-intelligence unit is responsible for most discoveries of Mossad cells in Lebanon. Last November Beirut newspapers reported the arrest of a Lebanese man who had been spying for Israel since the early 1980s.
The covert war works both ways, with Hezbollah building up a network of espionage cells in Israel and even recruiting Israeli soldiers
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5786611.ece
