Lebanese security forces have arrested nine people, most of
them Syrian nationals, over their alleged involvement in last
week's twin bombings in Beirut that killed at least 44 people,
the interior minister said.
"Until now the detained include seven Syrians and two
Lebanese one of them a [would-be] suicide bomber and
the other a trafficker who smuggled them across the border
from Syria," Interior Minister Nuhad Mashnuq said at a
televised press conference on Sunday.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claimed responsibility for the attacks last Thursday, which hit a busy shopping street in Burj al-Barajneh. "The whole suicide bombing network and its supporters were arrested in the 48 hours following the explosion," Mashnuq said. He said the Syrians were detained in a Palestinian refugee camp located in Burj al-Barajneh and a flat in the capital's eastern district of Ashrafieh that had been used to prepare the explosive belts. The initial plan was apparently to send five suicide bombers to a hospital in the neighbourhood, he said, but heavy security forced them to change the target to a densely populated area. Beirut-based political analyst Ali Rizk told Al Jazeera that the bombings signal a shift in ISIL's tactics. In the past month, ISIL has claimed responsibility for downing a Russian plane and killing all 224 people on board, the Beirut bombings and the recent Paris attacks in which at least 129 people lost their lives.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claimed responsibility for the attacks last Thursday, which hit a busy shopping street in Burj al-Barajneh. "The whole suicide bombing network and its supporters were arrested in the 48 hours following the explosion," Mashnuq said. He said the Syrians were detained in a Palestinian refugee camp located in Burj al-Barajneh and a flat in the capital's eastern district of Ashrafieh that had been used to prepare the explosive belts. The initial plan was apparently to send five suicide bombers to a hospital in the neighbourhood, he said, but heavy security forced them to change the target to a densely populated area. Beirut-based political analyst Ali Rizk told Al Jazeera that the bombings signal a shift in ISIL's tactics. In the past month, ISIL has claimed responsibility for downing a Russian plane and killing all 224 people on board, the Beirut bombings and the recent Paris attacks in which at least 129 people lost their lives.
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