BEIRUT: Lebanese security forces said yesterday they had detained a Sunni Muslim militant suspected of recruiting suicide bombers and assembling car bombs for a radical group behind attacks on Iranian interests in Beirut.
Hassan Abu Afleh, they said, was suspected of being a leading figure in the Abdullah Azzam Brigades — a movement that has carried out bombings to punish Iran and Tehran’s Shia Lebanese ally Hezbollah for their role in the Syrian war.
The Brigades claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s twin suicide attack near the Iranian cultural centre in Beirut that killed eight people, and an assault on the Iranian embassy in November.
Iran-backed Hezbollah is fighting alongside President Bashar Al Assad’s forces in neighbouring Syria against mostly Sunni Muslim rebels. The near three-year-old conflict has exacerbated sectarian conflicts and galvanised radical groups inside Lebanon, creating a major challenge for the new Lebanese government that took office on Saturday.
Israel gunfire injures 10 Gazans
GAZA CITY: Ten Palestinian men were wounded by Israeli army gunfire yesterday in clashes near the border fence in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said. Ashraf Al Qudra, a spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry, said one man was in serious condition after being shot in the head. Qudra said the shooting, not far from Jabaliya northeast of Gaza City, ame after the Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers.
An army spokeswoman said “hundreds of Palestinians” had been throwing stones at Israeli soldiers beyond the border fence and attempting to sabotage it.
The soldiers opened live fire at “the lower extremities of the main instigators” after attempts to disperse them with riot dispersal means failed, she said.
Clashes are common on Fridays, with regular protests near the border in support of Gaza farmers who say troops uprooted their trees to create a buffer zone.Agencies
