BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentine authorities have detained three individuals with Syrian and Lebanese citizenship suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in the South American country, Argentina’s security minister and federal police each said on Wednesday.
Authorities did not give details on the suspects’ identities, but said officials were investigating the suspects’ objectives for visiting Argentina and a 35-kilogram package en route from Yemen to one of the suspects.
“Indications arose of the possible entry into the country of three citizens of Syrian and Lebanese origin who, after arriving on different flights, were to meet in the city of Buenos Aires to plan an eventual terrorist act,” Argentina’s Federal Police said in a statement. The police did not specify when the arrests occurred.
Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told journalists that the suspects had previously entered Argentina with passports from other countries. She said their identities would not be released until they could be verified.
“Now there is an investigation. We will see if it was indeed a cell that came to Argentina or if it has another implication,” said the minister, who took office on Dec. 10.
The announcement comes less than two months after Brazil’s federal police arrested at least three men after dismantling a suspected cell of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, acting on a tip from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
One of the detainees in Brazil had taken photos and videos of two synagogues and a Jewish cemetery in Brasilia.
In Argentina, Israel’s embassy and the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, a Jewish community center, were the targets of two bloody attacks in 1992 and 1994, respectively, which together killed nearly 100 people.
(Reporting by Lucila Sigal; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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