‘CIA spies busted in Iran, Lebanon’

Former and current officials of the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have reportedly confirmed that a number of the US agency’s spy rings have been dismantled in Iran and Lebanon.

Intelligence officials in Iran succeeded in uncovering the identities of a handful of CIA informants, Reuters quoted the officials as saying on Tuesday.

Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah also dealt a heavy blow to the CIA operations in Lebanon, forcing the US intelligence agency to curtail its espionage activities in the country.

The US sources have been quoted as saying that they now fear for the lives of “paid informants in the two countries.”

CIA operations in Lebanon have been badly damaged after Lebanon busted a number of US spies this year.

In June, Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address that his movement had identified and captured at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated its ranks.

CIA officials have secretly been scrambling in recent months to protect their remaining spies, foreign assets or agents working for the agency in Lebanon, before Hezbollah finds them.

Giving credit to Hezbollah for uncovering the espionage rings, the US officials blamed negligence by CIA managers and sloppy practices used by the spies for their networks being discovered in Lebanon.