Yemen’s Houthis fundraise for Hezbollah
The fundraising campaign comes on the heels of increased US sanctions against Lebanese Hezbollah.
The fundraising campaign comes on the heels of increased US sanctions against Lebanese Hezbollah.
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.
While the Treasury designation focuses on the four Iraqis’ links to Hezbollah, which is described as “a terrorist proxy for the Iranian regime that seeks to undermine Iraqi sovereignty and destabilize the Middle East,” it practically ignores the fact that one of them is the Secretary General of the Imam Ali Battalions, or Kata’ib Imam Ali, a key component of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an official military arm of the Iraqi state that reports directly to the prime minister.
Despite official Lebanese claims to the contrary, the photos recently released by Hezbollah offer more evidence of how its forces coordinated with the Lebanese military in last year’s battle near Arsal.
Abdel Malek al Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthi insurgent group, again promises to send fighters to battle alongside Hezbollah in any future war with Israel.
Abu Muhammad al Filistini, the recently killed leader of a Palestinian jihadist faction in Syria, was recently eulogized by a reported senior commander in the al Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades in Lebanon. Filistini, whose real name was Ibrahim Khaza’il, was also reportedly a member of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades.
The leader of Saraya Ghuraba Filistin invites Lebanese jihadists, and specifically other Palestinians in the Ain el Helwe refugee camp, to join his group and fight inside Syria.
The Shiite jihadists were freed as part of a ceasefire deal with Sunni jihadists in the Lebanon-Syria border region.
The ceasefire comes just one day after Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah touted his forces imminent victory in the Jurud Arsal region of Lebanon.
The video offers more visual confirmation of Hezbollah’s capabilities for armed commercial drones.
The Shiite jihadist group offers safety to the Sunni militants in Arsal if they “throw down their weapons and surrender.”
As the offensive enters its third day, Hezbollah has claimed several advances on both sides of the Lebanon-Syria border.
While Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri claims that the Lebanese military is not coordinating with Syria or Hezbollah near Arsal, various reports from on the ground say otherwise.
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.
Qatar recently secured the release of Qatari hostages, including members of the royal family. But its diplomatic victory was marred by reports that a multi-million dollar ransom was paid to a US-designated terrorist group and an al Qaeda-linked joint venture in Syria.
Hezbollah may have begun receiving weapons shipments at Palmyra’s T-4 airport in an attempt to avoid Israeli detection.
On Monday, the State Department listed Ali Da’amoush and Mustafa Mughniyeh, both part of Hezbollah’s senior leadership, as specially designated global terrorists.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights disputed Hezbollah’s findings, claiming that it did not observe any artillery attacks on the airport, and its sources within the Syrian military and rebel groups in the city denied shelling the airport. It is likely that Israeli warplanes killed Mustafa Badreddine.
Mustafa Badreddine, Imad Mughniyah’s replacement and a notorious Hezbollah senior military commander, was killed in an attack on Damascus International Airport initially attributed to Israel.
Despite the exchange of threats between Israel and Hezbollah, the latest attack in the Shebaa Farms does not indicate a large-scale confrontation is on the horizon.
Akram Abbas al Kabi, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and the leader of the Harakat Nujaba, said his group and others “will seek revenge” for what he claimed was a US airstrike that killed 10 members of the League of the Righteous.
The Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, has released a video portraying Osama Mansur as a “martyr” for its anti-Iranian, anti-Hezbollah cause. Mansur served in the Lebanese Army before defecting to Al Nusrah.
Israel, Hezbollah signal their flare-up is over
Hezbollah fired five anti-tank missiles at an IDF unit patrolling near Mt Dov.
Two Israeli soldiers, UN peacekeeper killed in Israel-Hezbollah violence
Lebanese army says three more soldiers killed in Friday’s attack
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps confirmed that Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Allah-Dadi was killed in an airstrike in Syria. He was assigned to help Hezbollah and Syria battle jihadist groups.
Jihad Imad Mughniyah, the son of the notorious founder and military and intelligence commander of Hezbollah up until his assassination in 2008, was among six Hezbollah operatives killed in a suspected airstrike in Quneitra, Syria.
Lebanese Army thwarts more suicide bomb plots
A Who’s Who: The Kingpins of the “Islamist Floor” in Lebanon’s Roumieh Prison