BICOM

Additional details have been revealed surrounding the arrest last week of a Lebanese-Canadian man in Cyprus, who is suspected of planning a terror attack on the island on behalf of Hezbollah.

Following the arrest, Cypriot police have declined to comment on the case. However, AP reports today that Cyprus’s Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou said that the home in Larnaca where the 26-year-old suspect was arrested had been under surveillance for some time following a tip off. When authorities raided the home, they found almost two tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in 420 boxes in the property’s basement. The AP report says that the suspect is not cooperating with authorities, who are investigating links to Hezbollah.

Cyprus is a popular holiday destination for Israelis. Following last week’s arrest, Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon suggested that Israelis were the prime target of the plot. He said that Cypriot authorities indicated that the property “was being used by Hezbollah’s international terrorism network” and that explosives were to be manufactured “apparently meant to be ready for attacks on us.”

In March 2013, a Cypriot court found a dual Lebanese-Swedish citizen guilty of helping Hezbollah plan an attack on Israeli tourists on the island. During the trial, the defendant admitted to being a member of Hezbollah since 2007, during which time he had trained to use weapons. He also gave details of meetings with his Hezbollah handler and said that he had staked out locations in Cyprus which were known to be popular with Israeli tourists.

Hezbollah’s determination to target Israeli citizens across the world was most brutally highlighted by an attack which saw a bus bomb in the Bulgarian resort of Burgas kill five Israeli tourists in 2012. A subsequent Bulgarian investigation concluded that Hezbollah was responsible for the attack. Following a request by the UK government, the European Union has since then classified Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist organisation.