Last week the authorities in Cyprus announced the arrest of a dual nationality Canadian-Lebanese ‘tourist’.
“The Phileleftheros newspaper said the 26-year-old man, who was remanded in custody Thursday, belonged to the Lebanese organization’s military wing and had personal links to Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
The daily said the man, who has not been named, arrived in Cyprus last week for what he described as a holiday.
He was arrested on Wednesday following a period of surveillance and more than 400 boxes of ammonium nitrate – a fertilizer that when mixed with other substances can be used to make explosives – was discovered at his home in Larnaca.”
According to local media, the police suspect that Israeli tourists in Cyprus were among the likely targets and the Jerusalem Post reports that:
“Security sources in Israel say they believe the apartment in which the suspect was captured was an explosive materials storeroom that belonged to Hezbollah and was supposed to constitute an outlet for carrying out a large-scale series of terrorist attacks across Europe against Jewish, Israeli and Western targets.”
Readers may recall that just over two years ago it took the BBC over a month to get round to reporting on a similar case in which a Hizballah operative was arrested and tried in Cyprus. Currently this latest story has received no coverage on the BBC News website’s Middle East or Europe pages.
