Report: Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians Arrested over Links to Dahieh Blast
The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau carried out on Friday night three raids in Beirut to arrest suspects linked to Thursday's Dahieh blast, reported the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper on Saturday.
It revealed that Lebanese national, Syrians, and Palestinians were arrested in a raid in the Tariq al-Jadideh neighborhood without specifying the number of the detainees.
The arrests were based on the telephone calls they had made, said al-Rai.
Judicial sources later on Saturday told MTV that no suspects have so far been arrested in connection to the attack.
Meanwhile, leading security sources from Hizbullah told al-Rai that it was likely that a suicide bomber carried out Thursday's attack given that the crater created by the blast was located in the middle of the road.
They added that the explosive used may have exceeded 100 kilograms and included gas and benzene or highly-flammable chemicals seeing as a blaze immediately broke out at the blast site.
Sources from the investigation meanwhile told An Nahar daily on Saturday that the explosives were not C4 or TNT, but a more potent substance.
They estimated that the bomb weighed about 60 kilograms and created a crater of a depth of 60 centimeters, length of 340, and width of 240.
The Hizbullah sources told al-Rai that it was likely that a nearby conference hall that frequently hosts Hizbullah political and religious events, including a speech by party chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah who appeared in person at the facility on August 2, was the target of the attack.
They suggested that the strict security measures around the hall prevented the attacker from reaching it and he therefore detonated the explosive before arriving there.
In addition, they revealed that the booby-trapped car used in the attack departed to Dahieh from a nearby location.
Despite the strict security measures taken in the area, the Hizbullah sources admitted that it would be difficult to prevent future attacks in the region, comparing them to those taking place in Iraq.
Moreover, he added that the strict measures may prompt the assailants to target other areas with a heavy Shiite presence, such as the South or the Bekaa, or even those of a dense Christian population in order to force them to leave the country, similar to what took place in Syria and Iraq.
At least 21 people were killed and 200 wounded in a car bomb attack in Hizbullah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday.
The blast went off on the public road between Bir al-Abed and Ruwais.
Later on Thursday, a group calling itself the Brigades of Aisha Umm al-Moemeneen claimed the bombing in a YouTube video and threatened further attacks over Hizbullah's involvement in the fighting in Syria.
On July 9, a booby-trapped car exploded at a parking lot in Bir al-Abed, leaving 53 people wounded and causing extensive material damage.
In May, two rockets slammed into the Beirut southern suburb of Shiyyah, wounding four people.
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