The Mossad announced on Thursday its method for recently thwarting a Cyprus terror attack: It kidnapped the mastermind from within Iranian territory.
The stunning revelation, including the identity of the mastermind, Yusef Shahabazi Abbasalilu, was the latest in the saga which itself first broke on Sunday.
Breaking: In a counter-terrorist operation on Iranian soil, the Mossad apprehended the head of a terror cell which planned on attacking Israelis in Cyprus, thwarting the attack.Senior Mossad official: "We will reach whoever foments terrorism against Jews and Israelis around the… pic.twitter.com/UKZDVQNe11
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) June 29, 2023
“In a unique daring mission within Iranian territory, the Mossad was able to seize the mastermind of the terror cell, who then admitted [to the terror plot] in detail during his interrogation, which led to exposing and the taking apart of the Cyprus terror cell,” said a Mossad statement.
A senior Mossad official said, “We will get to every official who advances terror against Jews and Israelis anywhere in the world, including within Iranian territory.”
The IRGC gave terror leader instructions, help
Abbasalilu had received detailed instructions from senior members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and told his interrogators exactly how the plot was to be carried out and where to find all the related supplies and cell members, said the Mossad.
Next, the spy agency passed on the information to Cyprus’ authorities who arrested most of the cell’s other members.
On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post and Phile News reported that the Mossad and Cyprus thwarted a planned Iranian terrorist attack on Jews on the island state.
That initial report said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps planned the attack, which was stopped in cooperation between Cyprus and Western partners, which named the US and Israel as among the likely partners.
Israel-Cyprus cooperation against Iranian terror
Jerusalem and Nicosia have worked together to foil Iranian plots to attack Israelis in the past. In 2021, they arrested a Russian-Azerbaijani hitman hired by the IRGC to kill Israeli businessmen in Cyprus. Billionaire Teddy Sagi, among others, was evacuated to Israel at the time.
Channel 12 added on Sunday that the terror cell targeted a Jewish real estate businessman, a Chabad site and hotels where Israelis tend to visit. Seven members of the cell were arrested, with one having escaped.
In March, Greek police disrupted what they called a foreign terrorist network operating within the country and arrested two foreign nationals.
According to both the Mossad and AFP, the terrorists were plotting to attack Israelis in Greece. “This is another example of Iran trying to use terror against Israeli and Jewish targets overseas,” said the Mossad at the time.
The Mossad had also helped identify the connection between the local terror cell in Greece and Iran’s broader global terror operations.
According to the intelligence agency, “along with our intelligence partners, we will act in our role without rest to thwart Iran’s intentions to cause harm throughout the world.”
In the Greece instance, the terrorists planned to strike a target of “high symbolic value”: A Jewish synagogue, which also functions as a restaurant, located in the center of Athens, Greek media reported.
In 2022, Greek media noted that Pakistani nationals were involved in an attempted attack on an Israeli in Istanbul, Turkey.
It was unclear if Greek media were referring to the September 2022 joint Turkey-Mossad operation which saved the lives of a large number of Israeli tourists.
In mid-2022, the Mossad kidnapped a different senior IRGC official who revealed a variety of Iranian plots in the midst of a series of operations in which a number of other IRCG operatives and nuclear scientists were assassinated, with Iran accusing Israel.