Report: Investigations Reveal Identity of New Suspect in Iranian Embassy Attack
Investigations in the double suicide attack on the Iranian embassy in Bir Hassan in the southern Beirut suburbs unveiled the identity of a new suspect, who allegedly is said to be the connection between the suicide bombers and the plotters.
According to al-Akhbar newspaper published on Monday, 24-year-old Sheikh Bahaa Eddine H. is suspected to be the link between the two suicide bombers and the side that planned the explosion.
The whereabouts of Sheikh Bahaa is unknown and investigators believe that he has close ties with Sheikh Sirajeddine Zuraiqat, the leader of the Abdullah Azzam brigades, an al-Qaida affiliate that claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks.
The group said group it was targeting the Iran-backed by Hizbullah, which is fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's troops against Sunni-led rebels in neighboring Syria.
The report also said that Sheikh Bahaa had close ties with Moein Abu Dahr, one of the two suicide attackers behind last month's explosion that hit the Iranian Embassy.
Sheikh Bahaa, hails from the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.
Gen. Sobhi Abu Arab, the head of the Palestinian National Security Forces in Lebanon, expressed surprise in comments published in al-Akhbar that Sheikh Bahaa is allegedly involved in the attack on the Iranian Embassy.
Abou Arab said that he received phone call s from Lebanese security agencies calling for his cooperation to hand over Sheikh Bahaa.
He stressed that the father of Sheikh Bahaa stressed that his son is innocent but contacting him to convince him to hand himself over to the security agencies.
Sources told the newspaper that Sheikh Bahaa is still at the Ain el-Hilweh camp.
Lebanese authorities had identified the two men who launched the double suicide attack on the Iranian embassy in Bir Hassan in the southern Beirut suburbs in November.
The southern city of Sidon was the home of Moein Abu Dahr, the Lebanese bomber in the deadly attack in the Bir Hassan neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs.
Abu Dahr's father told authorities he believed his son was involved after the army released a photograph of one of the suicide attackers. A DNA test identified his son as the bomber.
The other is Adnan Mohammed, a Palestinian from the Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp.
Mohammed lived in Zahrani near Sidon.
Both men are staunch supporters of Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir.
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