Israel Links Failed Bomber to Iran

JERUSALEM —  A mysterious foreigner who set off an explosion in an East Jerusalem hotel room last month was a Lebanese Muslim arming a bomb to blow up an Israeli airliner, the government announced Thursday after an unusual gag order on the case was lifted.

The government issued a statement charging that the bomber had been sent to Israel by Iran and was operating under the direction of the Hezbollah guerrillas’ spiritual leader in Lebanon, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.

The bomber, who reportedly entered Israel on a stolen British passport, was identified as Hussein Mohammed Hussein Mikdad from the village of Farun in Lebanon. Government officials claimed that he intended to set off the bomb aboard an El Al flight from Tel Aviv.

The announcement appeared to substantiate Prime Minister Shimon Peres’ assertion that Iran has been working to undermine his election bid and, with it, Israel’s efforts to make peace with its neighbors in the Middle East. U.S. officials have made similar claims.

In Beirut, however, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, or Party of God, categorically denied that Mikdad belonged to the group, which is fighting to oust Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.

Mikdad, who lost both legs, an arm and both eyes in the accidental explosion April 12, is in a Jerusalem hospital and reportedly unable to speak.

Israeli journalists said details of the case were known shortly after the explosion, but the secret service, known as Shin Bet, obtained a court gag order to prevent publication of the information.

The government has been warning Israelis that either the guerrillas in Lebanon or Palestinian Islamic extremists would launch a terrorist attack before the May 29 national elections.

There is a common perception that the government got lucky this time--and in the case of a Palestinian would-be suicide bomber who blew himself up in a field on the outskirts of East Jerusalem last month--but that eventually luck will run out and an attack will hit its target. Both of these bombers made it to the heart of Israel--Jerusalem--with their deadly explosives.

The government has redoubled security at airports, sea ports and bus stops. The army said border crossings into Israel from Gaza will now be open only to foreigners and Palestinian officials and in special humanitarian cases--at least until the elections.

While officials had been on alert for a Palestinian attacker, they reportedly were surprised to discover the Hezbollah link to the hotel-room explosion.

According to police, Mikdad left for his mission from the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. They said he arrived in Israel on April 4 on a Swissair flight from Zurich.

He entered the country on a British passport in the name of Andrew Jonathan Charles Newman that had been stolen from a French resort in 1993, police said.

Mikdad stayed at a hotel in Tel Aviv for several days before moving to the Lawrence Hotel in East Jerusalem on April 9.

Police said Mikdad had less than a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of a plastic explosive and apparently was working with the material when it accidentally exploded, destroying three rooms on the third floor of the hotel.