Lebanese authorities arrested five Syrians and a Palestinian in connection with the twin suicide bombings in central Beirut on Thursday that killed 43 people, a senior security source said Saturday. He also said a third suicide bomber had been killed by one of the explosions before he could detonated his own bomb.
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A few political observers asserted that the aim of the attack was to destabilize the Lebanese internal situation which is already fragile, and incite a sectarian strife among the Lebanese or between them and the Syrian refugees. Al Mashnouq said police have detained all those suspected of being involved in planning the attack.
Lebanese Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk holds a press conference at the police headquarter in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, November 15, 2015.
The group said in a statement posted on Twitter by its supporters, that its members blew up a bike loaded with explosives in a street in the Borj al-Barajneh area and when people gathered, a suicide bomber blew himself up among them causing more casualties and killing 40 people.
The blasts were the first to target a Hezbollah-dominated neighbourhood since mid-2014, after a string of such attacks rocked the capital in 2013 and 2014.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the bombings, and following the pattern of the other attacks this week, “this time around the sense is that these are people, period”, said Fares.
But Thursday’s was the largest IS attack ever in Lebanon, and among the deadliest bombings to hit the volatile country in decades.
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Hezbollah has sent hundreds of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the four-year-old conflict over the border.
