FBI puts Lebanese-Canadian on most-wanted list for planning to detonate bomb in Israel

08 July 2011

A Canadian national of Lebanese origin who once lived in the Detroit area  is being accused by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of having traveled to Israel in 2000 to detonate a bomb on behalf of Hezbollah. Faouzi Ayoub, 44, was added to the FBI's most wanted list of terrorists on Wednesday after a two-year-old indictment against him for passport fraud was unsealed. His whereabouts are unknown.

Ayoub, who was born in Lebanon, is accused of trying to enter Israel eleven years ago on a false passport issued to Frank Mariano Boschi in order to carry out a bombing attack for Hezbollah, a terrorist group based in Lebanon. He reportedly was part of an exchange of 436 prisoners released by Israel for businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in 2006.

Ayoub was indicted in August 2009 and charged with using a false passport.  According to Detroit media, the FBI considers him dangerous.
Court records and published reports chronicle Ayoub’s alleged terrorism ties, as well as his arrest by Israel’s Shin Bet security service nearly a decade ago. If caught and convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.

“Future indictments may be handed down as various investigations proceed in connection to other terrorist incidents,” according to a posting about Ayoub and others on the FBI’s website. The US government classifies Hezbollah, which dominates the Lebanese government, as a terrorist group.