A jury in a Manhattan federal court convicted Ali Kourani of various terrorism and other charges last week. Kourani surveilled prospective targets in New York City on behalf of Hizballah’s Islamic Jihad Organization, which has plotted terrorist attacks since the 1980s.
The State Department announced today that it is offering rewards for information concerning the whereabouts of two senior Hezbollah operatives. One of the two, Talal Hamiyah, is the head of Hezbollah’s External Security Organization, which oversees worldwide terrorist plots. The other, Fuad Shukr, “played a central role” in the Oct. 1983 Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. That suicide bombing helped inspire a generation of Shiite and Sunni jihadists.
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced that two men, Ali Kourani and Samer El Debek, had been arrested and charged with carrying out various missions on behalf of Hizballah’s Islamic Jihad Organization. The IJO serves as Hizballah’s external operations wing, carrying out clandestine missions on behalf of Iran around the world. The complaints allege that Kourani and El Debek were both members of the IJO, which is ultimately controlled by Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who in turn reports “directly” to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.