Hezbollah accuses Israel of Hariri assassination

BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militia presented aerial reconnaissance footage Monday that he said implicates Israel in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

But Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who has been in hiding since his Shiite Muslim group battled Israel in a monthlong 2006 war, acknowledged the material was not absolute proof.

"This is evidence, indications ... that open new horizons for the investigations," Nasrallah said at a lengthy press conference in which he spoke to reporters via satellite link.

Nasrallah said the tapes date from the 1990s until 2005, and were of Israeli reconnaissance footage of areas frequented by Hariri, including where he died, and were intercepted by Hezbollah. He said this proved Israel was tracking his movements for purposes of assassination.

The speech comes as pressure is mounting on Hezbollah over a Netherlands-based international tribunal investigating Hariri's assassination, which is set to issue indictments this year.

Hariri was killed in a massive Valentine's Day truck bombing that many in Lebanon blamed in Syria, which backs Hezbollah. Syria denies any involvement in the assassination. But massive demonstrations following Hariri's death eventually forced Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon.

Nasrallah says he already knows that Hezbollah members will be among those indicted, and has denied any involvement by the group.

He has called the tribunal an "Israeli project" meant to target the group and said it has no credibility. If Hezbollah is indicted, there are fears it could spark riots between the Sunni supporters of Hariri and Shiites followers of Hezbollah.

"The tribunal was used to force Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon and is now being used to besiege Hezbollah," Nasrallah said Monday.

In response to questions about why Nasrallah chose to offer the material five years after Hariri's assassination, he said the recent arrests by Lebanese authorities of scores of Lebanese agents who were spying for Israel since last year and interrogations with them have yielded information proving Israel's deep involvement in a number of assassinations in the country.

Nasrallah said they have also just learned of an Israeli spy who had been scouting the area of the assassination just a day before the truck bomb that killed him exploded. The spy, however, fled before authorities could arrest him.