Report: Hezbollah planned massive terror attack on Chabad hosting compound, restaurants in Bangkok

The Thai police's capture of a Lebanese-Swedish Hizballah suspect, Atris Hussein, who was charged Monday, Jan. 16, thwarted a terrorist attack on Bet Chabad in Bangkok, which was to involve the taking of hostages and blowing up the building. It was to have followed the same lines as al Qaeda's 2008 assault on the Mumbai Habad center which killed 8 Israelis and Jews - only more ambitious. The Chabad Bangkok is much larger: its hostel has rooms for dozens of lodgers. A second team was to have hit the Khao San Road restaurants popular with Israelis and Americans in a coordinated operation.

This is the first time Western and Israeli agencies have found evidence of the Lebanese Shiite Hizballah using and training operatives in the same terrorist methods as al Qaeda. debkafile's counter-terror sources note that two or possibly three Hizballah cells were to have gone into coordinated action on the same date this month. The only suspect in Thai custody is Atris Hussein, 47, who was arrested as soon as he landed at Bangkok international airport Thursday, Jan. 12. He reportedly broked down under questioning Sunday, admitting his role in the plot and describing it in detail.

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