BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities say they have identified the two men who launched a double suicide attack on the Iranian embassy this week which killed 25 people in Hezbollah’s southern Beirut bastion.
Relatives of one of the men said he was a supporter of Al Qaeda and Sheikh Ahmed Assir, a radical Sunni preacher in southern Lebanon who has been on the run since his supporters clashed with Lebanese troops in the summer, killing 17 soldiers. The embassy attack was claimed by an Al Qaeda-affiliated group that said it was targeting Hezbollah.
One of the suicide bombers was identified by DNA testing after his father came forward when photos of the suspects were published, a judge said yesterday.
The test on Adnan Abu Dahr showed that human remains at the scene belonged to his son, Mouin Abu Dahr, who was identified as one of two attackers, the judge was quoted by the National News Agency as saying. The army confirmed that the younger Abu Dahr, from the southern Sunni-majority town of Sidon, was one of the suicide attackers.
A Facebook page apparently belonging to Mouin Abu Dahr, which had been taken down yesterday, expressed support for Al Qaeda and for Assir, whom he vowed to “avenge” after the clashes with the army.
Assir, also from Sidon, had frequently expressed support for the Syrian uprising and encouraged Lebanese Sunnis to join it. A security official said the second bomber was found to be a Palestinian, who also lived in southern Lebanon and supported Assir.
In Sidon, two tanks were stationed near the Abu Dahr home, where neighbours expressed shock that Mouin had carried out the attack. “He was a polite man who always encouraged me to pray. I did not expect him to commit such an act,” Ahmed Al Yaman, who lives across the street, said. A close friend said Mouin became far more religious after a recent trip to Sweden, where he fell under the influence of a radical imam.
“After he returned from Sweden, he started talking about martyrdom and saying his family was not religious enough,” the friend said.
After Assir was chased into hiding, the friend remembers Mouin speaking of an injustice against Sunnis and making an ominous vow. “He said he would commit an act that everyone would talk about.”
AFP
