Welt: Hezbollah bought Ammonium Nitrate during time of port storage
Shafaq News / The German newspaper “Die Welt” revealed details of 3 shipments of ammonium nitrate, estimated at 650 tons, received by the Lebanese Hezbollah from Iran in late 2013 and early 2014.
The German daily newspaper quoted information, which it said was “exclusively from European intelligence sources” documenting Hezbollah’s purchase of these quantities of ammonium nitrate, almost simultaneously with the storage of the ammonium nitrate that was deposited in the Beirut port at the time, which led to a huge blast on August 4.
The invoices for the purchase of these materials, according to Die Welt, showed that On July 16, 2013, a total of 270 tons of ammonium nitrate was delivered from Iran to Lebanon, Months later, on October 23, another 270 tons of the chemical were delivered, The article added that a third shipment was made on April 4, 2014, but the amount delivered was uncertain.
In total, the three deliveries are for a quantity of 630 to 670 tons of ammonium nitrate,” the WELT article conjectured.
The cargo arriving in October 2013 was transported via plane, presumably on an Iranian airline, such as Mahan Air, which is sanctioned by the United States. The other deliveries were made via land or sea, the article alleged.
It is not certain if the ammonium nitrate at the port was the same that was shipped around the same time to Hezbollah in 2013 and 2014, according to the report. Some of the Lebanese terrorist group’s purchase was shipped through the port, and some was imported via airport or overland through Syria, the report said.
The report named Muhammad Qasir as responsible for these shipments, as he and other senior Hezbollah officials were working from Damascus with Quds Force Unit 190, which specialized in “smuggling” weapons to Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza, under the supervision of Qassem Soleimani.
Die Welt listed a number of Hezbollah and Iranian regime operatives involved in the deliveries of ammonium nitrate to the port. Mohammad Qasir, who was sanctioned by the US government for financing the Lebanese terrorist group, was listed as a deliverer of the explosive material.
Matthew Levitt, who serves as the director of the Washington Institute’s Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence said “Qasir heads Lebanese Hezbollah Unit 108, responsible for facilitating transfer of weapons and tech from Iran to Lebanon via Syria. Based in Damascus, Qasir and other senior Hezbollah officials work closely with officers from Quds Force’s Unit 190, which specializes in “smuggling” weapons to Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza, under the supervision of the commander Qasem Soleimani.”
Levitt, a leading Hezbollah expert, added: “The first link in the weapons transportation chain is Qasir’s Unit 108, which is responsible for moving weapons across Syria to the Lebanese border and then, together with Unit 112, transporting weapons across the border into Lebanon.
Another Hezbollah unit, Unit 100, runs a ratline in the reverse direction, from Lebanon to Syria to Iran, ferrying Hezbollah trainees to and from advanced training in the handling and use of the rockets delivered from Iran.”
“Qasir, aka Hajj Fadi, is uniquely qualified to head a unit as sensitive and important as Unit 108,” he said.
“One of Qasir’s brothers, Hassan, is reportedly the son-in-law of Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah. Another brother, Ahmed Qasir, was the bomber who carried out the November 1992 attack on an Israeli military headquarters in Tyre, South of Lebanon.
Nasrallah referred to Ahmed as the ‘prince of martyrs’ at a Martyrs Foundation event marking the anniversary of the attack.”
Die Welt documented additional operatives involved in the deliveries. Iranian Quds Force member Sayyed Mojtaba Mousavi Tabar is believed to have organized the Iranian transfer of ammonium nitrate to Hezbollah.
It is noteworthy that, last April, the German government banned all Hezbollah activities. Because it turns out that” he stored ammonium nitrate in Bavaria”.
