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Unit 121: "Hezbollah's secret assassination team responsible for Hariri's assassination"

The Washington Post reveals that intelligence sources gathered information linking the organization's leadership to the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, but due to its sensitivity could not be used at trial. The sole culprit in the affair, Salim Ayash, commanded the unit responsible for Nasrallah and was responsible for killing other senior officials.

• Lebanon
• Hezbollah
• Rafik al-Hariri

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Hezbollah operative convicted last week of assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri is part of a secret assassination unit responsible for at least four other Shiite assassinations, the Washington Post reported, past and present security sources in the United States, Europe and the Middle East revealed new intelligence. On the affair.

According to sources who spoke anonymously due to the sensitivity of the issue, the assassination team, known as "Unit 121", was under the control of the Hezbollah leadership and operated under different identities for years, even before the February 2005 attack that killed al-Hariri and 21 other people. A UN-sponsored international tribunal has ruled that 56-year-old Salim Jamil Ayash is guilty of assassination, and acquitted three other activists for lack of evidence at the end of an 11-year investigation.

However, the judges ruled that the Hezbollah leadership could not be linked to al-Hariri's assassination. The Washington Post reported that intercepted calls and other evidence not included in the proceedings indicate the existence of an assassination unit. It has been responsible for blasting car bombs against politicians, military personnel and journalists in Lebanon for at least a

decade.Two former US officials said the intelligence was presented privately to Tribunal members. The materials could not be used publicly for fear of exposing sources and means of gathering intelligence.Aish, whose whereabouts are unknown, was a permanent member of the assassination team and even commanded it.

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The sentence in Hariri's assassination will increase the pressure on Hezbollah

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Location is unknown. Salim Ayash (Photo: Reuters)

Hezbollah denies any connection to the assassination of the former prime minister, which led to huge protests in the country and the withdrawal of Syrian forces, but the same sources told the newspaper that the existence of the assassination unit reinforces doubts about speculation that the assassination was carried out by Hezbollah insurgents.

"There is no question about that," a former senior U.S. security official said of Hezbollah's control of the unit. "Hezbollah is a highly disciplined organization," added the source, who was involved in intelligence gathering efforts after the assassination.

Another source said that the secret unit includes dozens of activists, who are completely detached from anyone else in the organization. According to him, the instructions come directly from Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah. Another senior official who was authorized to give assassination orders was Mustafa Badr a-Din, who is considered the organization's chief of staff and was himself prosecuted as part of the Hariri assassination investigation. He was mysteriously assassinated in Syria in 2016, and charges against him were dropped. In Israel, it was said that he was killed as part of the liquidation of internal accounts in Hezbollah.

The same source noted four other people killed by the secret unit: Wissam Eid, a Lebanese investigator of al-Hariri's assassination; Wissam al-Hassan, a general in the Lebanese army and head of al-Hariri's security establishment; François al-Hajj, Lebanese general; And Muhammad Space, an economist and diplomat. They were all killed in a car bombing between 2007 and 2013.

General Ashraf Rifi, who headed Lebanon's internal security services, confirmed the existence of the secret unit. "Ayash was part of that circle," he said in an interview.

The scene of the attack in Beirut where Hariri was killed, 2005 (Photo: Reuters)

Hezbollah experts in the United States have long believed that the organization's leaders use targeted assassinations to get rid of most of them and their enemies. The Iran-backed organization specializes in making bombs and is built so that the blame does not reach the doorsteps of the leaders.

The fear is that Hezbollah will return to carry out attacks against its rivals in light of the intensifying criticism against it since the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut earlier this month. Although no direct link is known between Hezbollah and the thousands of tons of nitrous oxide stored in the port for years and whose blast devastated the city, protesters in Lebanon chanted slogans against Nasrallah and other senior officials after the blast.

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