Police Doubt al-Atrash's Murder Near Syria Border

Security forces have expressed doubt that the man allegedly behind bomb blasts that rocked the southern suburbs of Beirut recently, was assassinated, An Nahar daily reported on Monday.

The newspaper said that the body of Omar al-Atrash, who hailed from the Bekaa town of Arsal, was not examined by security forces, which were also banned from opening an investigation into his murder.

Al-Atrash was buried in Arsal after he was killed on Friday in a rocket attack on his vehicle in an area that separates Arsal and the Syrian border.

An Nahar quoted security forces as saying that they did not see the photo of the vehicle to investigate whether the rocket attack was from the air or the ground.

They also did not rule out a booby-trapped explosion.

But Arsal's residents claimed that they prevented police from examining al-Atrash's body or open a probe into his murder because he was badly mutilated.

Media reports have said that al-Atrash was involved in two deadly car bomb attacks in the Hizbullah stronghold of Beirut's southern suburbs in July and August.

He is also suspected of planning two rocket attacks in May that wounded four people in the suburbs.

Samer al-Hujeiri, who was with al-Atrash in the car, was also killed Friday, reports said. Sameh Breidi was injured in the incident and admitted to a hospital.