(R) Abu Najma, Aanam and Abu Sarah
REVEALED: The Shin Bet says they have captured an al-Qadea
terror cell which was planning numerous terror attacks on a number of central
sites in Israel.
The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court has cleared for publication
that the Shin Bet has recently arrested three Palestinians, the most senior of
which from east Jerusalem and the other two from the West Bank, and that the
three were actively involved in planning at least two major terror attacks, including
a suicide attack and truck bombing.
According to suspicions, the cell was planning to undertake
a complex set of terror attacks on the orders of a Gaza-based operator who is
directly affiliated with al-Qaeda and answers directly to Qaeda leader Ayman
Zawahiri.
The Shin Bet investigation revealed that about four months
ago, the Gaza operator, who works under the Salafist alias Arib a-Shaham,
enlisted the three: Iyad Abu Sarah, 24-year-old from east Jerusalem, Rubin Abi
Najma, 30-year-old from Nablus and Ala Aanam, 22, from a village not far from
Jenin.
The Shin Bet believes that their enlistment and deployment
was conducted over the internet via Skype and Facebook, without anyone of the
three knowing about the other's existence or their orders.
According to the Shin Bet, Abu Sarah admitted during
interrogation to receiving instructions to carry out a large-scale terror
attack and he also said he had begun learning the tenets of Salafism. His
father apparently noticed his son's new-found interest in radical Islam and
attempted to dissuade him. Abu Sarah also donated funds to support the transfer
of radical forces to al-Qaeda in Syria.
Bombs away
During his investigation, Abu Sarah claimed he was planning
an attack on a bus which runs from Jerusalem to the settlement of Ma'ale
Adumim. The plan was to fire at the bus' wheels in a bid to cause it to flip
over. He then planned to fire on the fleeing crash survivors and arriving
rescue forces.
After scrapping this idea, Abu Sarah began organizing a plan
to orchestrate a simultaneous terror attack in two major sites: Jerusalem's
International Convention Center and the American embassy in Tel Aviv's Yarkon
Street.
During his investigation he revealed that he planned to
leave the country soon to travel to Syria where he was expected to meet with
al-Qaeda operatives and work with five of them to realize the double terror
attack. He was supposed to aid the five to enter Israel with fake Russian
identification.
According to the plan, three of the five terrorists were
supposed to detonate a massive explosive at the heart of the crowds entering
the International Convention Center and after that Abu Sara was suppose to lead
and explosive laden truck to the scene to target the rescue and security forces
arriving in wake of the blast.
In the meantime, two other al-Qaeda operatives were suppose
to descend on the US embassy in Tel Aviv with suicide belts strapped onto their
bodies and detonate them at the entrance to the embassy.
The Shin Bet noted that Abu Sarah was only in initial
planning stages, including training for making explosives with fertilizers and
purchasing flight tickets to Syria from which he could cross into Syria. Abu
Sarah also received instruction on bomb making from his Gaza operator.
Al-Qaeda in the West Bank
The second man taken in for Shin Bet interrogation, Abu
Najma, also admitted to planning to kidnap a soldier in Jerusalem and place an
explosive device at the entrance to the mostly-Jewish Abu Tor neighborhood in
the capital.
The third man, Aanam, admitted to planning to form a terror
cell in his home village near Jenin.
The Shin Bet noted that the three had no previous record of
terror activities, but they did express support of such organizations, namely
al-Qaeda.
"We are talking about a serious plan that was now in
initial stages of coming together. During investigation we updated that
relevant parties in the US and elsewhere," a senior Shin Bet source said.
"Their mode of operation is identical to that presented
by al-Qaeda when it perpetrates terror attacks around the world, especially
along the Egyptian-Israeli border, with the held of internet correspondence.
This cell is not connected to the one found and eliminated in Yata village in
southern Mount Hebron" at the end of November, the source added.
The source also noted that the five foreign operatives who
were expected to participate in the attack were apprehended because of alert
border control forces.
The Shin Bet further noted that "the phenomena of
international jihad and al-Qaeda, now in its infancy in Judea and Samaria,
after it has already garnered hundreds of operatives in Gaga. Together with the
Palestinian Authority we can stop it.
Regarding Gaza, the Shin Bet said that Hamas' effort to stop
rival factions from escalating the situation in the south has as of new been
confined to talking and placing security forces in the field, but no arrests.
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