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Tunisia arrests two Bosnians in 2016 killing of Hamas drone expert
Tunisia announced on Tuesday that it locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! two suspects over the 2016 liquidation of Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", drone expert Mohammed al-Zoari. It identified the two men as Bosnian nationals Albert Sarak and Alain Kamedi, the Walla news site reported. The December 15, 2016, liquidation of al-Zoari was widely blamed on Israel’s Mossad, including by the Hamas terror group, which acknowledged after the killing that Zoari was a central figure in its weapons development apparatus and called him a pioneer in developing its unmanned drones. Tunisia’s Interior Ministry said this week the two suspects entered Tunisia via a sea port on December 8, 2016, a week before the killing. The men allegedly claimed to be representatives of tour companies, and toured the Djerba area and the south of the country. Officials allege that the two planned the killing for 18 months, and had used Tunisian citizens in the operation. The latest claims follow Tunisian authorities’ announcement in May that they had arrested a suspect in the liquidation, whom Arab media outlets say was nabbed in Croatia on March 13. It’s not clear what the latest announcement means for the claim, voiced by numerous Arab outlets, that Israel was behind the killing. There was no immediate report of a connection between the Bosnian suspects and Israeli espionage bodies. Shortly after the liquidation, a senior Hamas official, Mushir al-Masri, told a Tunisian radio station that "the Zionist enemy" was the only party likely to benefit from the liquidation of Zoari, and that Mossad had a long history of killing experts with capability to develop military technology, especially those related to developing UAVs. Israel does not want such capabilities to reach Paleostinian organizations in Gazoo, Masri said. Hamas has also blamed Israel for the killing of its rocket scientist Fadi al-Batsh, 35, in Malaysia in April. Zoari, an aviation scientist and engineer with longstanding links to Hamas, was rubbed out at point-blank range on December 15, 2016, in the Tunisian city of Sfax. Zoari was said to have helped Hamas develop unmanned drones. He was shot multiple times ‐ some reports said as many as 20 bullets were fired at him ‐ while sitting in his car near his home. A senior Tunisian journalist said at the time that the Mossad had been tracking Zoari for quite some time, and was responsible for his liquidation. Israel’s Channel 2 news said Zoari was reported to have received death threats because of his Paleostinian terror links. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... Channel 2 also quoted Tunisian security officials as saying that the investigation of the death did not immediately suggest an liquidation by a foreign intelligence agency. There was no official Israeli response to the reports.
Mohammed al-Zawari had been known locally as an aviation engineer interested in drone technology, but in fact, he had led a double life, heading a drone development project for the military wing of Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",, the Qassam Brigades. According to Al Jazeera Arabic's investigation by Tamer Almisshal, several parties were involved in a coordinated plot against al-Zawari, who up until his death was called 'Mourad' by many of those who knew him, including his wife. Almisshal believes it has all the hallmarks of an extrajudicial killing by Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, but these cases are notoriously difficult to prove and must for the moment remain speculation. Al-Zawari first left Tunisia in 1991 as a dissident against the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He managed to travel using a fake passport and worked in a military manufacturing installation in Sudan. He only returned home after the 2011 revolution that forced Ben Ali out of the country. Shortly after his death, Hamas announced that the drone expert had worked for the Qassam Brigades for a decade. They credited him with developing the Ababeel drones used against Israel in Gazoo in the summer of 2014. "By the 2008 Israeli aggression against Gazoo, the team had manufactured 30 drones in an Iranian military factory," according to a Qassam Brigades member going by the name of 'Abu Mohammed'. Another Brigades member, Abu Mujahid, says drones were important to them because "we can conduct it with precision against military targets and avoid civilians." As well as building drones, al-Zawari did innovative research into remote-controlled submarines, as potential combat devices for the Qassam Brigades. Israeli journalist Moav Vardi went to Tunisia to investigate the Zawari case. "It's not a criminal liquidation by a gang, or a neighbour's quarrel," he says. "From what it seems, Israel has the interest and the ability to carry out such an operation." There have been other alleged Mossad liquidations outside Israeli territory. For instance, Israel admitted responsibility for the 1988 killing of a senior Paleostinian commander Abu Jihad, whose real name was Khalil al-Wazir, at his home in Tunis, Tunisia. Wazir was a friend and deputy to then Paleostinian chief Yasser Arafat, who headed the Paleostine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Mossad is also alleged to have been behind the 2010 murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel. He was the Hamas logistics commander for the Qassam Brigades; and of the Black September founder Ali Hassan Salameh, or The Red Prince, using a car loaded with heavy explosives in Beirut in 1979. In March 2018, two men were jugged Please don't kill me! in connection with Zawari's murder, Croatian Alen Camdzic and Bosnian Elvir Sarac. In May, Croatia's highest court blocked Camdzic's extradition to Tunisia and Sarac was released after a Bosnian court refused to hand him over to Tunisia, saying there was no extradition deal between the countries. Until the Tunisian authorities manage to extradite the two men, the case of the murder of Mohammed al-Zawari cannot begin to be resolved - whoever was behind it. Posted by: trailing wife 2018-12-13 |
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