Israel has been closely following Hezbollah activity in Africa for a long time and its concerns about the Shiite terror group's growing hold in African countries were reaffirmed Thursday, after Nigeria announced that it had uncovered a Hezbollah cell operating in the country's north, as well as a large weapons cache.
Abuja authorities said on Thursday that three Lebanese nationals were arrested in northern Nigeria on suspicion of being Hezbollah operatives and that a raid on one of their residences had revealed a stash of heavy weapons.
The three suspects were arrested between May 16 and May 28 in Kano, the north's biggest city, military spokesman Captain Ikedichi Iweha said in a statement. According to the Nigerian official, all three have admitted to being Hezbollah operatives.
Israel believes that the Nigerian terror cell has been planning attacks against Israeli, American and other western targets for several years; and that it may be linked to other Hezbollah proxies in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Benin.
The Nigerian Secret Service detained the first suspect, Mustapha Fawaz, on May 16 at his supermarket in Kano. His interrogation led to other suspects, including Abdullah Tahini, who was later arrested at Kano airport with $60,000 in undeclared cash. The third suspect, Talal Roda, who has dual Nigerian-Lebanese citizenship, was arrested on Sunday at the house where the weapons were found two days later.
A raid on the residence of one of the Lebanese had uncovered 11, 60 mm anti-tank weapons, four anti-tank landmines, two rounds of ammunition for a 122 mm artillery machine gun, 21 rocket-propelled grenades, 17 AK-47 assault rifles with more than 11,000 bullets and some dynamite, Iweha said.
"The search team uncovered an underground bunker in the master bedroom where a large quantity of assorted weapons of different types and caliber were recovered," Iweha said. "All those arrested have confessed to have undergone Hezbollah terrorist training."
"The arms and ammunition were meant to target facilities of Israel and Western interest in Nigeria," he said, but did not elaborate.
The possibility of a link with Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram, which Nigerian forces are battling in a major offensive in the northeast, was being investigated, he added. Nigerian authorities believe there has been a growing involvement of al-Qaida-linked foreign jihadists in Nigeria's insurgency.
An alliance between Salafist Sunni Muslim Boko Haram and Shiite Hezbollah would be unusual, and there has never previously been evidence of such a link. Though most Nigerian Muslims are Sunni, there are several thousand Shiite Nigerians, a legacy of Muslim radical Ibrahim Zakzaky's preachings since the 1980s. Zakzaky still leads Nigeria's main Shiite movement and has campaigned for an Islamic government and stricter adherence to Sharia law.
Israel believes that Nigeria has become a hotbed for global jihad groups, which have been trying to increase their presence and activities in Africa. Intelligence sources said Hezbollah's operations on the continent include training camps and arms smuggling.
Thursday's arrest joins a previous one made in February, when Abuja announced that it had arrested three suspects surveilling Israeli and American targets in Lagos, for Iran.
The Counter Terrorism Bureau in the Prime Minister's Office believes that Hezbollah's attempts to target Israelis overseas are constantly growing.
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