Hezbollah boosts security amid spy scare

BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 2 (UPI) -- Hezbollah has beefed up security following the arrest of several suspected Israeli spies and the assassination of a top operative from Hamas in Dubai on Jan. 19, allegedly by Israel's foreign intelligence service, the Mossad.

The Iranian-backed Shiite movement was a prime target for as many as 25 undercover Mossad cells across Lebanon that were rolled up last year in an unprecedented crackdown that began in November 2008.

That was a crippling setback for the Mossad, which had used the cells to assassinate Hezbollah and Palestinian operatives in Lebanon and Syria, track Hezbollah chieftains, and locate command centers, arms dumps and safe houses.

Lebanese authorities say some of these cells were used to locate Hezbollah targets for the Israeli air force during a 34-day war in the summer of 2006 and had been tasked to spot new targets for a new conflict many fear is brewing.

Hezbollah's security was severely jolted on Feb. 12, 2008, when its legendary military chief, Imad Mughniyeh, was assassinated in a heavily guarded sector of Damascus, the capital of Syria, one of the movement's key backers. Mossad was blamed.

The Lebanese crackdown against the Israeli spy networks began nine months later.

One of Mossad's prime targets in Lebanon was Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. He has survived at least two assassination attempts and has holed up in a network of highly secure bunkers in south Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold.

He made his second public appearance since 2006 last week when he visited Damascus to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attending a summit with Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad.

But in the aftermath of the killing of Hamas arms procurer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, allegedly by a Mossad hit squad, Nasrallah reportedly made elaborate plans to travel from Beirut to Damascus undetected by his enemies.

According to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, quoting an unidentified senior security source in Tel Aviv, the Hezbollah leader and three close aides drove to Damascus in an "old, modest-looking car" so as not to attract unwanted attention.

He remained inside Assad's heavily guarded palace from his arrival Feb. 23 until his departure Feb. 25. No photos of Nasrallah in Damascus were published until he had returned to Beirut, presumably the same way he had arrived.

The source claimed Nasrallah refused to fly to Damascus for fear the Israeli air force would shoot down his aircraft. He also refused to fly on a commercial airliner on the grounds he was so well known he would be recognized even if disguised.

Hezbollah officials declined to discuss the report and there was no independent verification.

The Beirut daily Asharq Al-Awsat, which is close to Hezbollah, reported Monday there was considerable consternation in Israel's security establishment when it was discovered Nasrallah had fooled his pursuers.

But the Mabhouh assassination, which Dubai authorities blame on Israel, was a reminder that the Mossad remains a deadly threat on Hezbollah's doorstep.

The death of three Hamas operatives, one of them purported to be a senior figure in the Palestinian movement, in a mysterious bombing Dec. 26 deep inside Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold is widely seen as an Israeli operation.

The killings heightened Hezbollah's unease, already high because of concerns that Lebanon is drifting toward a new war with the Jewish state.

That gave added resonance to the new wave of arrests by Lebanese security authorities, with Hezbollah's feared security apparatus lurking in the background.

It is clear from the identities and numbers of Arabs, mainly Lebanese, who have been rounded up since 2008 that Mossad has penetrated deep into Lebanese society and even into Hezbollah itself.

The suspects, Christians as well as Muslims, arrested in 2009 included a former security service general, four army colonels, a former mayor and businessmen.

Some had been recruited during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and were accused of being involved in the assassination of several Hezbollah and Palestinian operatives from 1999-2008.

One of the men seized in February was reported to be Lt. Col. Ghazwan Shaheen of Lebanon's military intelligence who allegedly spotted targets for the Israelis in 2006.