On July 7, a joint security team comprised of Mossad and the local Special Forces Command (SFC) arrested at Entebbe International Airport Lebanese national Hussein Mahmoud Yassin, an undercover Hezbollah agent who has lived and worked in Uganda since 2010, the Kampala Post reported Monday.
On July 14, Lebanon protested the arrest of two of its citizens, Ali Huseein Yassin and Hussein Mahmoud Yassin, by clandestine operatives. According to Chimp Reports, Ali, who runs a private company dealing in concrete supplies, was told he could not use his Ugandan passport to fly to Lebanon. He called up Hussein and asked him to fetch his Lebanese passport and bring it to the airport. The two told their family in Lebanon that they were going back to Kampala because Ali was not allowed to leave the country – and that’s the last their relative have heard from them.
The Kampala Post cited a source close to the investigation who said the security services may have nipped in the bud a terrorist plot of international proportions. The shocking revelations follow intense interrogations of the suspect by experts from both clandestine agencies.
Yassin was about to board a flight to Lebanon via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, having just arrived at Entebbe airport from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, a few hours earlier.
Yassin’s mission was to identify US and Israel targets in Uganda and the region on behalf of Hezbollah, recruit Lebanese living in Uganda for Hezbollah operations, as well as recruit Ugandan Muslims who traveled to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj to become Hezbollah intelligence assets in the peninsula.
Because of the close political and intelligence relations between Uganda and Israel, Mossad was able to alert Ugandan security about Yassin’s activities. He was followed for months by the joint Mossad-SFC team until July 7 when he was arrested upon his return from Tanzania.
The source further told the Kampala Post that Yassin had already identified at least 100 Lebanese living in Uganda for possible recruitment by Hezbollah. Some of these Lebanese work with telecommunications provider Africell, whose service spans across Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, and Sierra Leone, with a total of more than 12 million active subscribers. In 2014, Africell acquired Orange Uganda.
According to the source, the US and Israel are demanding the immediate prosecution of the Lebanese national, but it remains to be seen what the Ugandan authorities will do with Yassin.
