Suspect Confesses a Task to 'Monitor the Iranian Cultural Center and al-Manar TV'

The Internal Security Forces Information Bureau had arrested before Wednesday's twin blasts in South Beirut, a Lebanese national of al-Halfa family who confessed of being tasked by the Lebanese Sheikh Sirajeddine Zouraykat of the Abdulllah Azzam Brigades with monitoring al-Manar TV and the Iranian Cultural Center, An-Nahar daily reported on Thursday.

Had the attack been delayed one more day, it could have been thwarted due to the confessions of the suspect, the daily added.

The twin suicide car bombings in the Beirut suburb of Bir Hasan near the Iranian Cultural Center killed six people and wounded more than 100 others, the second attack in less than four months targeting Iranian interests in Lebanon.

Investigations were also able to uncover the identity of one of the suicide bombers, Nidal Hisham al-Mogheer, a Palestinian from the Baisariyyeh camp in the southern city of Sion.

His family had reported al-Mogheer missing for several days, and his father identified the picture circulated by the Lebanese army after the blast.

Based on the confessions of the al-Halfa, the Minister of Interior, Nouhad Mashnouq, issued an order requesting security enhancement in the proximity of al-Manar TV.

According to the National News Agency, a group of angry men in Sidon burnt down on Wednesday night al-Mougheer's family house and a car that belonged to his father.

Meanwhile, al-Liwaa daily said that well informed sources voiced fears that terrorist groups could be working separately. Hence capturing one cell could not necessarily lead to another.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the double bombing, vowing additional attacks in retaliation to Hizbullah's involvement in the Syria war.