TEL AVIV – Two terrorist attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Buenos Aires in the 1990s that killed dozens of people were carried out by a secret Hezbollah unit whose agents, contrary to widespread claims, were not knowingly instigated or assisted by Argentine civilians by Iran on the ground, according to an investigation by Mossad, Israel’s secret service.
The internal Mossad study, the written findings of which were shared with DailyExpertNews, provides a detailed account of how the attacks were planned, including how materials for the explosives were smuggled into Argentina in shampoo bottles and chocolate boxes.
While Mossad emphasizes that Israeli intelligence still believes Iran, a Hezbollah supporter, authorized and funded the attacks and provided training and equipment, the findings refute long-standing claims made by Israel, Argentina and the United States. that Tehran had an operational role on the ground. They also refuted suspicions in Argentina that local officials and civilians there were complicit.
In the first attack, which killed 29 people in 1992, the Israeli embassy was blown up. The second, in 1994, targeted the headquarters of a Jewish community center, killing 86 people, including the bomber, in one of the deadliest anti-Semitic crimes since World War II.
The effects of the blast were felt in Argentina for decades, with some of those appointed to investigate the attacks later being prosecuted for obstructing the investigation and top politicians accused of involvement.
The attacks also stunned Israel, which sees itself as the protector of Jews around the world, demonstrating Hezbollah’s global reach and growing threat at the time.
The bombings were carried out by Hezbollah in revenge for Israeli operations against Shia militia in Lebanon, according to the Mossad investigation. It said Hezbollah had used secret infrastructure built over the years in Buenos Aires and other South American locations to plan attacks.
The investigation found that the explosives used in both attacks had been smuggled into Argentina by Hezbollah agents in shampoo bottles and chocolate boxes on commercial flights from several European countries. They were then hidden in a park in Buenos Aires.
Chemicals used to make the bombs were bought by a trading company used to cover Hezbollah’s operations in South America, according to the investigation.
The attackers have not been brought to justice or killed in multiple Israeli attacks on Hezbollah over the years, and they live in Lebanon, the investigation reported.
Interpol “red notices” were issued against two people accused of being attackers, both identified in the Mossad investigation as Lebanese Hezbollah agents. A third person is wanted by the United States. Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was named by the Mossad investigation as the head of the unit carrying out the attacks, was killed in 2008 in a joint Israeli and US operation.
The Mossad’s conclusions are based on information from agents, from the questioning of suspects, and from surveillance and wiretapping. The findings from the internal reports were confirmed this month in interviews with five current and former senior Mossad officials.
The investigation also revealed failures by Mossad, which had not been warned of the attacks in advance. The second was very similar to the first and was conducted by the same group, but the investigation showed that Israeli intelligence had not detected any activity preceding it.
The Mossad investigation and current and former officials said Hezbollah, conventionally overtaken by the Israeli military in Lebanon, began building covert units around the world to extend its reach and attack Israeli or Jewish targets.
Beginning in 1988, Hezbollah sent agents to several South American countries to “gain experience to open legitimate businesses and have strong commercial coverage for inter-country movements,” according to the Mossad’s findings.
The investigation identifies agents by name and details of falsified passports and other documents used. The agents gathered information about border security, setting up cover companies and about possible targets, including the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.
On February 16, 1992, Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s leader, Sheikh Abbas Musawi.
After that attack, according to Mossad, Hezbollah sent a senior agent, Hassan Karaki, on a forged Brazilian passport to Buenos Aires, where he bought the pickup truck used in the attack on the embassy.
The deputy commander of Hezbollah’s operations unit, Talal Hamiyah, also arrived in Buenos Aires, where he met Muhammad Nur al-Din, a 24-year-old Lebanese man who had emigrated to Brazil a few years earlier and agreed to commit suicide. to act bomber.
Mr. Hamiyah left Argentina a day before the attack in which Mr. al-Din blew himself up; all other Hezbollah agents also left the country, according to the Mossad report, which also described telephone conversations between Mr Mughniyeh, the Hezbollah commander, and his agents.
In 2017, the US State Department offered up to $7 million for information leading to Mr Hamiyah’s location, arrest or conviction.
Major General Uri Sagie, a former Israeli military intelligence chief who recommended the assassination of Mr Musawi, acknowledged in a 2016 interview that Israel had not anticipated the threat. “I had not accurately foreseen Hezbollah’s response,” he said.
According to Mossad’s findings, such failures were “a very important encouragement” for Hezbollah. In March 1994, the group also planned a suicide attack in Bangkok, but the suicide bomber got cold feet and left the mission.
The then head of Mossad, Shabtai Shavit, was warned by a senior intelligence official that there was a serious danger of another attack on Jews or Israelis in South America, especially in Argentina, according to two Israeli security officials moment and who asked for anonymity to discuss secret topics.
Mr Shavit believed the operation was carried out by Iran, not just Hezbollah, and he ordered monitoring of the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires, which showed no unusual activity, the officials said. Mr Shavit declined to comment.
Israel continued to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon. On June 2, the Israeli Air Force attacked a Hezbollah camp, killing 50 and injuring 50. Hezbollah radio stations promised “a comprehensive response at all levels”.
A month later, on July 18, 1994, the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires was attacked.
According to the Mossad investigation, the same Hezbollah agents responsible for the community center bombing the next day were behind the downing of a Panamanian plane that killed 21 passengers, including 12 leaders of Panama’s Jewish community.
The Mossad’s findings state that because the Hezbollah network “was not exposed and neutralized” after the attack on the Israeli embassy, the same people were able to carry out “an even more deadly attack” on the community center two years later.
The bombing has sparked accusations that Argentine officials with far-right or neo-Nazi sympathies could be involved.
But the Mossad investigation found no evidence for such claims.
“Only the agents of Hezbollah’s foreign operations unit took part in the attacks, without any involvement from local civilians,” it concluded.
As for Iran, Mossad cited findings from an Argentine prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, that Tehran approved of the two attacks, without adding details. In 2007, at Nisman’s request, Interpol issued red warnings against senior Iranian officials, including Ahmad Vahidi, Iran’s current interior minister.
Argentina, Israel and the United States have long accused Iranian embassy staff in Buenos Aires of aiding the attacks with material and organizational aid. Tehran has repeatedly denied the claims.
However, the Mossad investigation found that Iran had not been involved in carrying out the attacks or in providing aid. Argentina’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the findings.
Sebastián Basso, the head of Argentina’s research unit investigating the attack on the community center, said on Thursday that Iran was “the intellectual author” of the operation.
“The prosecution believes there is enough evidence for senior officials of the Iranian government to provide an explanation,” he said.
Nisman was found dead in 2015 after announcing his intention to prosecute Argentina’s president and foreign minister for making an illegal deal with Iran; the circumstances of his death remain unclear.
According to four former Israeli officials, the attacks in Argentina have reshaped the struggle between Hezbollah and Israel, making Israel more reluctant to attempt the assassination of senior members of the militant organization.
That reluctance helped undermine Israel’s position against Hezbollah in the late 1990s, when it suffered heavy losses in Lebanon, eventually leading to its withdrawal from the country in May 2000, the former officials said. They added that fear of retaliation was also one of the main reasons Israel decided not to attack Iranian nuclear sites in 2012.
Ana Lankascontributed reporting from Buenos Aires.
