US offers $7m over Hezbollah agent in 1994 Buenos Aires bombing
The United States has issued a $7 million reward for information leading to the location of an agent for the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah believed to have masterminded the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires.
The reward is to find alleged perpetrator Salman Raouf Salman, and it included new sanctions on him, in tandem with Argentina’s announcement that it was designating Hezbollah as a terrorist group.
“We are targeting Salman Raouf Salman, who co-ordinated a devastating attack in Buenos Aires, Argentina, against the largest Jewish centre in South America 25 years ago and has directed terrorist operations in the Western Hemisphere for Hezbollah ever since,” said Sigal Mandelker, the US Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
The designation coincided with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Argentina as he sought to unite Latin American nations against the militants.
Twenty-five years since the bombing in which 85 people died, no one has been brought to trial and the case has been bogged down in Argentina amid allegations of political interference and high-level corruption.
Iran and Hezbollah deny responsibility for the attack. Hezbollah was also accused of carrying out a deadly attack two years earlier against the Israeli embassy.
The US is encouraging Latin American countries to follow its lead in aggressively designating groups or individuals as terrorists, as demonstrated by Argentina’s action.
“In the face of a global threat like Hezbollah, it is every sovereign nation’s obligation and responsibility to comply with sanctions designed to keep all of us safe,” Mr Pompeo said as he opened the talks with fellow ministers.
“Solidarity is the antidote to the terror threat,” he said.
Argentina’s Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie said that the Hezbollah designation would allow the country to freeze the group’s assets and ban the entry of its members.
Mr Pompeo said he expected “many” Latin American countries to follow Argentina’s lead on Hezbollah.
The US Treasury Department said Salman, is also known as Salman Al Reda. He has joint Lebanese and Colombian citizenship, allowing him to move easily across Latin America.