Current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press and ABC News on Monday Dozens of spies working for the CIA were captured recently in Lebanon and Iran. The CIA's operations in Lebanon have been badly damaged after Hezbollah identified and captured a number of the U.S. spies. Hezbollah's longtime leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, boasted on television in June that he had rooted out at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated the ranks of Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group closely allied with Iran. Though the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon officially denied the accusation, current and former officials concede that it happened and the damage has spread even further. According to a report by ABC News, there were two distinct espionage rings targeting Iran and Hezbollah in which spies were recruited by the CIA. Current and former U.S. officials said the two different spy rings were discovered separately but both caused a significant setback in U.S. efforts to track Iran's nuclear activities and Hezbollah actions against Israel.
