This doesn’t mean that the Hizballah leader downed the flight, although that may have happened. It may also have happened that the flight was downed by someone else because the Hizballah leader was on the flight. Or the flight could have crashed for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the Hizballah leader. But this does increase the possibility that this crash had something to do with jihad.
“Air Algerie AH5017: ‘Hezbollah Leader and French Troops were On Board Flight,'” by Vasudevan Sridharan, International Business Times, July 26, 2014 (thanks to A.M.H.):
Of the 116 or 118 people on board the Air Algerie flight AH5017 which crashed in the restive northern Mali, at least 33 French military personnel including three senior intelligence officials and a Lebanese Hezbollah leader were present, it has emerged.
Even as the Algerian authorities have asserted that the real cause of the crash could be established only after a thorough investigation, they have not ruled out a terror attack either.
The exact number of people present in the aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas-83, is still unclear – whether it was 116 or 118. But the local daily Echorouk, citing sources, said there were French troops on board.
There were at least 19 Lebanese passengers and some of them were dual citizens, including an alleged senior Hezbollah figure, who was disguised as a businessman.
A team of Lebanese experts is also on its way to Mali to assist the ongoing investigation.
Meanwhile, militants from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA), locally known as Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa, are said to be stationed near the crash site, which is not far from their stronghold.
The al-Qaeda-inspired outfit is believed to be holding an arsenal of missiles in its possession which were smuggled from Libya.
However, experts have firmly ruled out any ground-to-air attack that brought down the plane.
But speculation over a criminal incident linked to explosives inside the Burkina Faso-Algiers flight has also surfaced.
“We rule out — and have from the start — any ground strike,” French junior transport minister Frédéric Cuvillier told France Two television.
Crash site pointer
The crash site where the debris of the aircraft is scattered over a relatively small area suggests the plane hit the ground intact following which it disintegrated.
So far, experts have stuck to the theory that adverse weather conditions or technical glitches could be the cause of the crash.
Algerian transport minister Amar Ghoul told reporters: “The investigation is still going on. It needs time but we should not ban any hypothesis until the investigation is achieved. We need to deal with information carefully and not believe rumours until investigators finish their job.”
“We cannot talk about the real reason for the crash before the investigation is finished. Technical data indicate bad weather. Mali has the priority to investigate as the accident took place there. Algeria, France or any other country will help in accordance with the law.”
zimriel says
MOJWA are a Sunni outfit; Hizb is Shi`i. Cannot rule out that the Hizb bigwig may have been working with the French.
Uncle Vladdi says
Good point! The French have always supported jihad, every since they returned from the Crusades with their muslim brides and half-breed children. And they also frequently betrayed Europe by inviting Turkish armies to help them in their wars with Austria-Hungary.
Beagle says
If this plane was taken down by a Libyan missile dragged back to Mali by Tuareg rebels, the western powers who took down Quadaffy would like to keep that information secret.
Our special mission in Benghazi, I will wager, was heavily involved in trafficking arms to Sunni jihadis. In the chaos after the fall of Libya, their arms were both intentionally trafficked and looted in the cause of global jihad.
As I see now, what Mac-101 says in his second paragraph. Eh, post anyway.
Beagle says
“We rule out — and have from the start — any ground strike,”
Like the FBI rules out terrorism before they show up at the scene of the explosion.
Elisheva14 says
No one one is cancelling flights because of this: as it won’t hurt Israel and the Jews.
Nan says
Or perhaps not so many tourists fly this route.
Jim Horn says
Insh’allah!
Jim Watson says
It’s a puzzleing conundrum.
Oliver says
RE: Hizbollah leader in disguise as a businessman. Wrong; he is a businessman.
It is juust that his business is so repugnant to (normal) westerners- the killing of women and children and hiding in civilian populated areas when they dare to strike an enemy who can fight back.. In Syria, an aberation- fighting near others women and children; their own miles away.
And his other busiess is probably ripping off millions from aid for the poor starving bastards. ( and probably laundering money, and perhaps some dope dealing on the side).
May many more Muslim planes -carrying their filth-and the supporters of their filth- crash and burn.
My opinion.