U.S. announces charges against alleged Hezbollah member in 1994 bombing
Dec. 20 (UPI) -- An alleged member of Hezbollah is facing terrorism charges for allegedly helping plan a bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994.
Samuel Salman El Reda, 58, allegedly had a role in leading "decades of terrorist activity," the U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday in a news release. The bombing at the Asociaión Mutual Israelita Argentina building led to the deaths of 85 people.
Federal prosecutors have accused El Reda, a dual Columbian-Lebanese citizen, of relaying information to operatives of Hezbollah's Islamic Jihad Organization during the planning and execution of the attack. El Reda was previously implicated in a 2013 report by an Argentine prosecutor.
"In or about May 2009, El Reda instructed an IJO operative to travel to Thailand to help destroy a cache of ammonium nitrate and other explosive materials that the IJO believed was under law enforcement surveillance," the news release reads.
"In or about February 2011, El Reda instructed an IJO operative to travel to Panama to surveil the Panama Canal and Embassies maintained by the United States and Israel, and in or about January 2012, El Reda instructed an IJO operative to travel again to Panama to conduct additional pre-operational surveillance."
Hezbollah is a major political party in Lebanon with a militant component that is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, a significant ally of Israel. The group was borne from Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and seeks to defend Lebanon from what it views as continued Israeli aggression. Over the years, it has carried out attacks that have been largely condemned as terrorism against Israel, the United States and their allies -- including the 1994 bombing.
The announcement of the charges comes amid the recent war in Gaza between Israeli forces and Hamas, a militant and political group in Palestine. It was not clear if the timing of the charges against El Reda is related to the Gaza conflict in any way.
"Nearly three decades ago, long-time Hezbollah terrorist operative Samuel Salman El Reda allegedly helped plan and execute the heinous attack on a Buenos Aires Jewish community center that murdered 85 innocent people and injured countless others," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen in a statement.
"This indictment serves as a message to those who engage in acts of terror: that the Justice Department's memory is long, and we will not relent in our efforts to bring them to justice."
The Justice Department news release announcing the charges was uncharacteristically long, dedicating its word count not to detailing the charges against El Reda, but describing the broader history of Hezbollah and its "numerous terrorist attacks" in vague detail.
A copy of the indictment, itself, also was light on details but said that El Reda allegedly had connections to Mohsen Rabbani, a prominent Shia cleric and Iranian diplomat who allegedly planned the attack, and Assad Ahmad Barakat, a Hezbollah financier.
The indictment also said that El Reda allegedly made calls from pay phones in Buenos Aires to a cellphone in the name of "Andre Marques" and was allegedly identified by IJO operative Mohammed Ghaleb Hamdar after his own arrest in Peru.
El Reda's charges include providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, among other charges.
