On November 9, Argentina 's special prosecution, which has been investigating the terrorist attack at the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires for the past 11 years, announced for the first time that there was solid evidence that the perpetrator of the attack was a 21-year-old Hezbollah operative. In a TV interview, Alberto Nisman, head of the investigation team, stated that it was Hussein Ibrahim Berro who had perpetrated the suicide bombing attack. According to Nisman, Hussein Berro was probably able to infiltrate into Argentina through Paraguay or Brazil . The possibility of Iranian involvement in the terrorist attack is being investigated as well.
It should be mentioned that in the first half of the 1990s, Hezbollah perpetrated two terrorist attacks in Argentina : the first was perpetrated against the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires (March 1992), leading to the deaths of 29 people; the second, and deadlier, was perpetrated against the Jewish community center (July 1994), as a result of which 85 civilians were killed and some 230 were wounded. The Argentine inquiry into the terrorist attack on the Jewish community center proceeded sluggishly and at times inadequately. During the years-long investigation, two judges who conducted the investigation and the trial were dismissed. Moreover, Carlos Menem, Argentina 's president in the 1990s, was accused of disrupting and delaying investigation procedures.
In late 2002, Argentina 's State Intelligence Service (SIDE) issued a detailed report, which was leaked to the media at the time. The report identified Iran (including leader Khamenei and former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian) and Hezbollah as being directly responsible for the terrorist attack at the Jewish community center. 1 In the wake of the report, international arrest warrants were issued against four Iranian diplomats suspected of involvement in the terrorist attack. The prosecution's present announcement is perceived as a meaningful development in the investigation of the terrorist attack. It is important because it provides a judicial reinforcement to the conclusion (that was reached by the Argentine intelligence services as well) that it was Iran , through Hezbollah, that stood behind the planning and perpetration of that act of terrorism.
Hezbollah spokesmen, on their part, were quick to deny the Argentine prosecutor's conclusions, claiming them to be part of the Israeli propaganda against Hezbollah, designed to portray it as a terrorist organization. They raised a ( false ) claim that Ibrahim Berro died a shahid's death in the confrontation between Israel and the “Islamic resistance” (i.e., Hezbollah). They also raised a fallacious claim that his body was still being held by Israel “along with the bodies of ten other resistance fighters” (Reuters, November 10).
According to our information, Ibrahim Hussein Berro, Hezbollah's suicide bomber in Argentina , belonged to the Shiite Berro clan; he was a member of the clan's branch residing in the Lebanon Valley (Bekaa), in the Baalbek region. Ibrahim's brother, Assad Berro, was killed in a suicide bombing attack against Israel (1989) in the village of Qleaa . Two additional brothers of Ibrahim immigrated to the US : Hassan (in 1985) and Abbas Berro (in 1996). It should be noted that the Berro clan also has an offshoot in the village of Kafr Kila in South Lebanon . Some of the Berro clan members are prominent drug dealers who collaborate with Hezbollah.
Ibrahim Hussein Berro, the suicide bomber from Argentina
In conclusion, the announcement of the Argentine prosecution reveals once more the nature of Hezbollah as an international terrorist organization that stood, among other things, behind two deadly suicide bombing attacks on the Israeli Embassy and the Jewish community center in Argentina . 2 This organization, which has on more than one occasion served as a “terrorist contractor” by the Iranian regime, continues to maintain a global terrorist-operative infrastructure that relies on a dormant network of operatives as well as arms and ammunition deposited in various locations. This infrastructure could be used once again, in our assessment, to perpetrate terrorist attacks worldwide (including abducting Israeli civilians) in short notice after receiving an order from the organization's leadership in Lebanon and from Iran .
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