Suspect admits to being member of Hezbollah

A 26-year-old Lebanese man held in connection with five tonnes of chemical fertiliser capable of making explosives has admitted to being a member of Islamist militant group Hezbollah.

The chemical was found in the basement of a house in Larnaca last month, mixed in with icepacks.

The suspect, a Canadian passport holder, is a member of Hezbollah’s military wing but had not been trained in Iran by the Revolutionary Guard as claimed in previous media reports.

The group’s military wing is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union.

According to a source in the secret service, Hezbollah has its own advanced training programme and has little need for Iranian support.

On Tuesday, reports said the suspect admitted his involvement to police but has not said anything about potential targets.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.