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Army Intelligence Detains Man Involved in Latest Haret Hreik Bombing

The army intelligence detained Khaled al-Satem for his suspicious links with the perpetrators who carried out the recent bombing in the Beirut's southern suburbs neighborhood of Haret Hreik, media reports said on Saturday.

According to state-run National News Agency, al-Satem was detained by army intelligence on Friday night at Deir Ammar checkpoint.

According to media reports, investigations are underway with al-Satem.

The relatives of al-Satem stressed that khaled isn't involved in any of the security incidents in the country, pointing out that he's a taxi driver.

LBCI said that the family had informed the army intelligence that Khaled had disappeared.

Al-Jadeed TV reported that al-Satem was detained at a checkpoint for Hizbullah and handed over to the Lebanese army.

Al-Satem is a relative of Qutaiba Mohammed al-Satem, who is allegedly behind the bombing that targeted the same area on January 2.

A suicide bomber killed four people in Haret Hreik on Tuesday, in the latest in a string of attacks targeting strongholds of Hizbullah.

The blast was quickly claimed by Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon, a group believed to be linked to al-Qaida's Syrian arm.

The blast was the third to hit Lebanon this month, coming after a car bomb in the northern town of Hermel and an earlier bombing that also targeted Haret Hreik.

DNA testing had confirmed that the January 2nd bombing was carried out by Qutaiba, who hails from Wadi Khaled resident in the northern district of Akkar.

Lebanon is no stranger to violence. It suffered a brutal 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, and a string of political assassinations from 2005.

But after a period of relative calm, the country has seen a sharp uptick in violence linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria.


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