Fiends foiled
Israel busts 3 in Qaeda plot vs. U.S. Embassy
ISRAEL SAID Wednesday it had stopped an “advanced” Al Qaeda plan to carry out a suicide bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and strike other targets in Israel.
Three Palestinians are in Israeli custody for plotting bombings, shootings, kidnappings and other attacks with Al Qaeda, Israel’s internal security agency Shin Bet said.
The plan marks the first time that Al Qaeda has been directly involved in plotting an attack inside Israel, analysts said..
The suspects — two men from Jerusalem and a man from the West Bank — were recruited by a Gaza Strip operative who worked for Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Shin Bet said.
The suspects, who were not named and whose ethnicities were not disclosed, allegedly
planned to give bomb vests to five foreign terrorists posing as Russian tourists for attacks on the U.S. Embassy.
That same day, the would-be killers planned to attack a Jerusalem conference center with guns, then detonate a car bomb when rescue workers arrived, Shin Bet said.
The three suspects — arrested in the last few weeks — allegedly had other carnage planned.
Shin Bet said they plotted to kidnap a soldier and shoot up an Israeli bus in the occupied West Bank. Another plan allegedly involved shooting out the tires of a bus and then gunning down passengers and ambulance workers.
One suspect also plotted to set up an Al Qaeda cell in Palestine, Shin Bet said.
The three suspects made contact with Al Qaeda over the Internet and planned to travel to Syria — where various jihadist groups are battling the forces of President Bashar Assad — for training, according to Shin Bet.
Hamas Islamists governing Gaza rejected the Israeli spy agency’s account as “silly fabrications,” saying it was an attempt to justify Israeli military strikes in the territory.
Terrorism experts have long said that Al Qaeda only has a fringe appeal among Palestinians who pursue a more nationalist conflict with the Jewish state.
Shin Bet said Al Qaeda’s presence in the West Bank was “still at its inception and possible to stop.”