Kuwaiti paper al-Jarida cites unnamed source as saying Israel set off blast in Hezbollah suburb of Dahiya after learning of leaders' meeting with group commanders in neighboring building. Report remains unconfirmed
The mysterious blast that occurred in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiya has inspired a number of explanations, one of them was the blast targeted Samir Kuntar, a terrorist released from Israeli prison in 2008.

Der Spiegel: Mossad behind Iran hit - German newspaper quotes Israeli intelligence source saying that Iranian nuclear scientist's assassination was Mossad chief Tamir Pardo's first major operation. Report claims Mossad opposed to IAF calls to strike Iran nuke sites

Published: 08.02.11


A mysterious blast that occurred in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiya has inspired a number of explanations, and on Monday the Kuwaiti paper al-Jarida joined the fray by extrapolating that its intention was to assassinate the leader of the Lebanese group, Hassan Nasrallah.
The unconfirmed report alleges Israel received information that Nasrallah was meeting with a number of commanders in a building nearby the one in which the explosion occurred.

The source cited by the paper said that immediately after the blast a Hezbollah team swept into the Beirut suburb and cleansed it of evidence. The source did not know whether Nasrallah was harmed, but he surmised that a number of senior members of the group were injured. Earlier reports from various Arab news agencies postulated that the blast targeted Samir Kuntar, a terrorist released from Israeli prison in 2008. However, the man who murdered two members of the Haran family was quick to publish pictures of himself holding his newborn son in the hospital, in order to dispel rumors he was injured.
On Monday the focus was switched to Mustafa Mughniyeh, son of Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in Damascus in 2008 by a mysterious blast in his car. The report said one of Mughniyeh's henchmen was killed and another injured. Hezbollah, for its part, published an obscure statement saying the blast was a gas tank explosion in a residential building. Dahiya is known as a suburb in which many of the organization's members reside.


Der Spiegel: Mossad behind Iran hit -
BERLIN – The assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran last week was the first major operation of Mossad director Tamir Pardo, the Der Spiegel website reported Monday.

The article, which quotes an Israeli intelligence source, surveys the series of assassination attempts involving Iranian scientists in the past 18 months and points to the Mossad as the organization at the forefront of Israel's campaign against an Iranian nuclear bomb.

According to reports, the scientist was shot to death last Saturday while taking his daughter to kindergarten. "It was the first public operation by new Mossad chief Tamir Pardo," an unnamed Israeli intelligence source told Der Spiegel's correspondent in Beirut.

It was later revealed that the victim was involved in the development of switches for a nuclear bomb and had worked in a research center in northern Tehran.


The days after the hit saw many conflicting reports regarding the victim's identity. Iran's State-run media initially identified him as Darioush Rezaei, a physics professor and expert in neutron transport, but backtracked within hours, with officials subsequently naming him as Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electronics student.

According to the Der Spiegel report, the victim is Professor Rezaei, who was not seen in public since the hit.


In January 2010, Iranian nuclear scientist Mohammed Ali Masoudi was assassinated in Tehran. In November of that year physics professor Majid Shahriari was also killed.

According to Der Spiegel's source, many Israel Air Force officers are pushing for an aerial attack on Iranian nuclear sites, a plan the Mossad is against.
"It's also a matter of prestige between the organizations," the source said. "As long as the Mossad is leading the campaign against the Iranian nuclear program it continues to get the big budgets."


Iran has submitted a letter to the UN's Human Rights Council demanding an investigation into the assassination of Daryoush Rezayeenejad last week.

Javad Larijani, the secretary general of Iran's High Council of Human Rights, accused Israel and the West of assassinating an electrical engineering graduate student.



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