FBI investigators were reportedly traveling to Israel this week to interrogate a Lebanese man thought to have been recruited by Iran to carry out a bombing in Israel.
The FBI hopes the man, who is in an Israeli hospital after being severely injured by a bomb blast, will be able to shed light on the July 17 explosion of Paris-bound TWA flight 800.
The investigators were expected to question Hussein Mikdad, a Lebanese man who lost his eyes, legs and an arm when a bomb he was preparing went off prematurely in an eastern Jerusalem hotel in April, according to the Israeli daily Ma’ariv.
Israeli police said that Mikdad had been recruited by the Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah group.
They also said that Mikdad had repeatedly been spotted visiting the Iranian Embassy in Beirut before coming to Jerusalem.
Two pounds of high-powered plastics explosives were found in his hotel room, which he had apparently smuggled into Israel when he entered on a fake British passport.
According to police, Mikdad had planned to blow up an El Al flight with plastic explosives in a clock radio.
Mikdad was believed at the time to be the first operative ever sent by Iran to carry out an attack within Israel instead of targeting Israelis or Jews elsewhere around the world.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
