Basel Bassel Ebbadi, 22, of Lebanon was caught illegally crossing the international border near El Paso, Texas, United States by the U.S. Border Patrol agents on March 9, 2024. He told them he was a member of Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia Islamist militant political party.
After Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah launched missiles into Israel. According to Ebbadi, he took on a role with Hezbollah guarding weapons locations for four years after training with the party for seven years.
Without any documentation, Ebbadi came to the U.S. Before that, he was robbed at knifepoint in Costa Rica so he lost his papers, he claimed.
Ebbadi was detained in isolation at the El Paso Hardened Facility in El Paso. While in custody, he was asked what he was doing in the U.S. He said he was on the way to New York, USA.
“I’m going to try to make a bomb,” Ebbadi told members of the Tactical Terrorism Response Team. He said he was on the way to New York, USA.
Refusing to kill people, Ebbadi claimed that he had been trying to flee Lebanon and Hamas. He told investigators, “Once you’re in in, you can never get out.”
The Lebanese man was marked for deportation from the U.S. It has yet to be confirmed which country he would be taken to.
CONAN Daily 