DNA Testing Confirms Identity of Qaida Emir al-Majed
DNA testing confirmed on Friday that the man detained by army intelligence is Majed al-Majed, the “emir” of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, the state-run National News Agency reported.
According to NNA, al-Majed's DNA was compared with those of his cousin, which confirmed his identity.
Al-Majed is the suspected chief of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which claimed it carried out a deadly November 19 double suicide bombing at Iran's Beirut embassy that killed 25 people.
Later on, the army issued a communique confirming the arrest of al-Majed after carrying out DNA tests.
"Army intelligence had detained a dangerous terrorist that was confirmed to be al-Majed after carrying out the necessary DNA tests," the statement said.
Lebanese authorities had refrained from confirming his arrest since media outlets published reports about his arrest.
Earlier on Friday, families of those killed in the bombing have demanded that he be tried in Lebanon and not be sent to his homeland, Saudi Arabia.
The Lebanese army also issued on Friday a communique denying reports published in media outlets concerning the circumstances that surrounded the arrest of a “terrorist,” stressing that investigation are ongoing in a “disclosed manner.”
Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri had said in an interview on Thursday with the pan-Arab daily Hayat that “should DNA tests prove the person detained is indeed Majed, we will be pleased with the arrest."
Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour confirmed on Thursday an Iranian request to “participate in investigations with al-Majed given that the explosion took place on an Iranian soil.”
He said he would raise the request with the relevant authorities.
The group was formed in 2009 and is believed to have branches in both the Arabian Peninsula and Lebanon.
The Lebanese unit is named after Ziad al-Jarrah, a Lebanese who took part in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
It is named for the Palestinian mentor of the late al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. He was killed in a 1989 bomb blast.
According to Islamist sites, Majed was revealed to be the leader of the Brigades in 2012.
On Wednesday, a Twitter account belonging to Sirajeddin Zreikat, a member of the Brigades, appeared to have been suspended.
Zreikat had claimed responsibility in the group's name for the Iranian embassy bombing.
That attack came amid rising tension in Lebanon over the role of the Iran-backed Hizbullah in the war in neighboring Syria.
In claiming the embassy bombing, Zreikat warned of more attacks in Lebanon if Hizbullah kept sending troops to support Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In 2009, Lebanon sentenced Majed in absentia to life in prison for belonging to a different extremist group, the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah al-Islam.
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