Alleged Hizbullah Suspects Placed on Special U.S. Terror List
Three alleged Hizbullah suspects -- two of whom are accused in a deadly 2012 bombing targeting Israeli tourists in Bulgaria -- have been placed on a special U.S. terror watch list, Washington announced on Tuesday.
The State Department named Meliad Farah, Hassan el-Hajj Hassan and Hussein Atris as "specially designated global terrorists."
The terror designation makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to engage in any transactions with the three men, and freezes any property they might possess within the United States.
All three men are Lebanese by birth, but Farah was identified as an Australian national, while Hassan el-Hajj Hassan is Canadian.
Meliad Farah and Hassan el-Hajj Hassan were placed on the list for their alleged role in the July 2012 suicide attack on a bus as the airport in Burgas, Bulgaria that killed six people, including five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian citizen.
Hussein Atris, who the State Department said has Swedish nationality, was identified as a member of Hizbullah's so-called “overseas terrorism unit.”
He was arrested in 2012 in Thailand as a suspect in a plot to carry out a bombing in Bangkok and was sentenced by a Thai court to two years and eight months in prison for possessing illegally possessing explosives.
He was released in September 2014, and is believed, like the other two men, to currently be in Lebanon.
Hizbullah, which spearheaded the Lebanese armed struggle against Israeli occupation, is considered a “terrorist organization” by the United States.
Source: Agence France Presse
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