Suspect Held in Connection to Tripoli Bombing Confesses to Planning Plot with Syrian Officer

A suspect held over his links to the twin bombings in the northern city of Tripoli in August confessed that he planned the attack with a Syrian Intelligence officer, revealing that the car used in the al-Salam mosque attack was purchased from a Syrian national from al-Qusayr, reported An Nahar daily on Thursday.

Suspect Sheikh Ahmed al-Gharib confessed to planning the attacks with Syrian Intelligence – Palestine branch in Damascus Captain Mohammed Ali and advised him to assassinate Salafist cleric Sheikh Salem al-Rafehi who preaches at the Salam mosque, added the daily.

Investigations in the attack determined that the car used in the blast was a 1997 metallic green Ford Expedition, which was purchased by Imad Omar Awad.

He sold the vehicle to Mohammed Hassan Mehdi, a resident of Ainata in the South, in February 2013.

Mehdi then sold to Mohammed Saleh, a resident of the Bekaa town of Brital, five days after buying it.

Saleh then sold the vehicle to Ahmed Tleis, known as Abu Khalil, two days after purchasing it from Mehdi.

Tleis then sold the car to Ali Nasri Shamas for $4,500, who then sold it to a Syrian national from al-Qusayr for $5,800.

The Syrian was identified as Khodr Lutfi who frequently communicates with Shamas' brother Mustafa and the Syrian Intelligence official.

Gharib described the Syrian official, known as Abu Jassem, as being around 35-years-old, heavyset, and having been an assistant to slain Syrian deputy defense minister and brother-in-law of President Bashar Assad, Assef Shawkat, who frequently tasked him with visiting the Lebanese town of Anjar prior to 2005.

The suspect revealed that he met with Ali six times in order to discuss carrying out assassinations and bomb attacks in Lebanon.

Four of the meetings were held in Ali's Damascus office, the fifth at a restaurant near the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, and the sixth in the Syrian town of Latakia three months later.

The officer stressed the need to assassinate Rafehi and Mustaqbal MP Khaled al-Daher in order to eliminate their influence in Tripoli.

They also discussed the possible assassination of former Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi, former MP Mustapha Alloush, and retired officer Amid Hammoud.

According to Gharib, Ali requested the assassination of Rafehi through a car bomb, voicing his readiness to booby-trap it in the Syrian town of Tartus or inside Lebanon in an area near the border with Syria that is controlled by Syrian intelligence.

The suspect added that pro-Syria Islamic Tawhid Movement-Command Council Sheikh Hashem Minkara had refused to go ahead with the plot after he was informed of its details.

The cleric was detained on August 29 for withholding information about the Tripoli bombings.

On August 23, 45 people were killed and at least 800 wounded in the bombings that targeted the Taqwa and al-Salam mosques as worshipers were performing weekly prayers.

Earlier in September, the Military Court charged Gharib, Mikara, and an informant, Mustafa Houri, with forming a terrorist network and an armed gang, undermining the authority of the state, and planting explosives and booby-trapped cars.

Ali and a Syrian identified as Khodr al-Arban were also charged with killing people and moving explosive-laden cars.