Hezbollah planned to assassinate former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in retaliation for the 2008 death of Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh, according to a report by London-based al-Araby al-Jadeed published on Wednesday. Hezbollah has long blamed Israel for the Mughniyeh assassination. According to the report, an Israeli spy embedded inside Hezbollah, Mohammed Shorba, passed vital information to the Mossad, ultimately thwarting the assassination. Shorba was exposed by Hezbollah's own internal security department last year, and the group admitted Shorba was a "division head" of one of the group's secret units until he was outed as an Israeli spy. Shorba's information also reportedly helped thwart an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Azerbaijan in 2009. Mughniyeh was killed on Feb. 12, 2008, in Damascus, Syria. A car bomb was detonated as he passed by on foot. Hezbollah blamed Israel for Mughniyeh's death and vowed revenge. Israel never officially confirmed or denied its involvement in Mughniyeh's death. Last month, Mughniyeh's son, Jihad, also a high-ranking Hezbollah operative, was killed in an air strike in Syria that was also widely attributed to Israel. A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander died in the same attack.
