FBI Team Gathers Evidence at Ashrafiyeh Bombing Scene
A U.S. investigation team arrived in Beirut on Thursday and began gathering evidence at the scene of the bombing that killed Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, chief of the Intelligence Bureau of the Internal Security Forces, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said.
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation team is at the scene of the crime and has begun collecting evidence," Charbel told Agence France Presse.
"The team was sent to Lebanon at the request of the Lebanese government," he added.
The United States announced on Monday it would send an FBI team to help Lebanon probe the rush-hour car bombing.
Washington has condemned the blast as a terrorist strike but said it would wait for the results of the investigation before determining any further response.
The opposition March 14 camp has widely blamed Syrian President Bashar Assad for the attack, as it did in 2005 when former premier Rafik Hariri was killed in a huge Beirut blast.
Al-Liwaa newspaper reported Thursday that the FBI delegation will offer Lebanese investigation teams the technical assistance in the issues that need high expertise, in particular the evidence that require “thorough examinations.”
A high ranking security source told the newspaper that the FBI team's mission is aimed at offering the “technical support” to the Lebanese investigators.
“We are determined to reveal the assassins behind the crime,” the source added.
Sources told the newspaper that the crime scene preparation by the culprits “took time.”
They pointed out that the nearby surveillance cameras detected the movement of unidentified people, wearing hats, who were scanning the area that the car used in the bombing was placed in.
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