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Lebanon blames bus bombings on Qaeda-linked group
Members of an Al-Qaeda-linked Palestinian splinter group have admitted carrying out last month's deadly Lebanon bus bombings, a government official told AFP Tuesday.
Six members of the group are in custody, some of them nationals of once-dominant neighbour Syria, and all have confessed to their part in the February 13 bombings which killed three people and wounded 18 in a mountainous Christian area northeast of Beirut, the official said.
Another two members of the cell of the Fatah-Islam group are still at large, the official added, asking not to be identified.
It was the first time a Lebanese official had spoken of the arrest of suspects in the bombings.
The detained suspects confessed to carrying out the bombings from a rented flat in the Ashrafiyeh area of Christian east Beirut. The rental was made in the name of Syrian Mustafa Shiyo, the official said.
The suspects said they had also been plotting to carry out attacks against the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, he added.
Six members of the group are in custody, some of them nationals of once-dominant neighbour Syria, and all have confessed to their part in the February 13 bombings which killed three people and wounded 18 in a mountainous Christian area northeast of Beirut, the official said.
Another two members of the cell of the Fatah-Islam group are still at large, the official added, asking not to be identified.
It was the first time a Lebanese official had spoken of the arrest of suspects in the bombings.
The detained suspects confessed to carrying out the bombings from a rented flat in the Ashrafiyeh area of Christian east Beirut. The rental was made in the name of Syrian Mustafa Shiyo, the official said.
The suspects said they had also been plotting to carry out attacks against the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, he added.
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The group claims responsibility on Ain Alak bombings.
Media outlets quoted Lebanese security sources as saying that a group belonging to the so called Fatah al-Islam confessed of carrying out the Ain Alak bombings east of Beirut, which targeted two buses and killed and injured scores of people. The web site of the Lebanese daily Annahar published details about the confessions of the group which seceded from the Fatah al-Intifada group late last year.
According to Naharnet, Internal Security Forces arrested six of eight accused people holding Palestinian, Syrian and Saudi ID's, involved in the bombings of the two buses on the 13th of February. The internet site added that the arrested men confessed of involvement in preparing to carry out other terrorist operations in Lebanon.
On the other hand, pro-government media outlets said that the group had also planned to target more than 38 figures and launch attacks against UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon. It is well known that the Fatah al-Islam group has been pursued by Syrian authorities.
In December, the Lebanon chief of the mainstream Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said the group had sent 150 Arab fighters from Iraq into Lebanon.
The militants were able to enter Lebanon without the knowledge of neighboring Syrian authorities, who have since arrested another Palestinian leader on suspicion of organizing their movements, Sultan Abul Aynain said.
Abul Aynain described Fatah-Islam as a "fundamentalist movement with an ideology close to Al-Qaeda's and which is financed by (Al-Qaeda chief Osama) bin Laden."
A senior PLO official told AFP on November 29 that around 200 Arab militants had arrived recently in Lebanon and set up an Islamic grouping in a Palestinian refugee camp in the north.
"About 200 armed elements came to Lebanon over several phases," said Khaled Aref, of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon.