Security forces are currently pursuing a Lebanese national suspected of providing the Raouche suicide bombers with explosive belts. They are also circulating his
photo in hopes of tracking him.
Earlier, units from the Internal Security Forces intelligence bureau evacuated the Safir Heliopolitan Hotel situated in Beirut's Raouche neighborhood, where they also conducted raids following a suicide attack that targeted the nearby Duroy Hotel Wednesday evening.
In this regard, a security source confirmed that the raids are a routine procedure implemented in order to verify the identities of the hotel’s guests, adding
that two boarders were questioned.
On Thursday, LBCI learned that the
Raouche suicide bomber was identified as Ahmad Abdel Rahman al-Thawani with the arrested would-be suicide bomber's name revealed as Abdel Rahman al-Shneyfi, who later admitted that the target of his mission was the popular Saha restaurant in the southern Beirut suburbs situated near the Rassoul Aazam Mosque.
The two terrorists entered Lebanon on June 11 coming from Turkey's Istanbul, sources said, adding that they made reservations in three different hotels.
Preliminary investigations also revealed that a Syrian national belonging to the al-Tawhid Brigade assisted the two terrorists since their arrival to Lebanon but so far the suspect remains at large.
Investigations are still ongoing under the supervision of State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr, while Military Court Judge Dani Zaani is interrogating the arrested would-be suicide bomber.
Interrogations are also being carried out with one of the
Duroy Hotel's employees who reportedly notified the terrorists about the raid carried out by the General Security forces.
A suicide bomber
wounded three security officers in a hotel close to the Saudi Arabian embassy in Beirut on Wednesday, Lebanon's interior minister said, the third blast in the country in less than a week.
Security services said the bomber was a Saudi national and that a second suspected Saudi militant, who was wounded in the blast, was arrested at the scene. The embassy though was not damaged, they added.
"The suicide bomber wanted to blow himself up at another place and security measures were taken to prevent him from reaching his target," Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said.
The bomber blew himself up after security officers raided the Duroy hotel, some 20 meters (yards) from the embassy in the seaside district of Raouche, security sources said.
Beirut's streets have been busy in the evenings with people watching the World Cup at cafes in the warm summer weather.
Ethnically mixed Lebanon has suffered a wave of sectarian violence linked to the war in Syria which, like its neighbor Iraq, is fighting a Sunni Muslim insurgency.
On Monday night, a suicide bomber blew up his car near an army checkpoint in Beirut, killing himself and a security officer. Three days earlier, the head of Lebanon's General Security service narrowly escaped a suicide bombing near the Syrian border.
"Lebanon is the target, not just the General Security services," Major General Abbas Ibrahim, the official who escaped the checkpoint bombing, stressed in comments made following the attacks.
GROUP MONITORED
Police had been monitoring a group of men who had booked into the four-star Duroy hotel several days ago and the two men linked to the bombing had arrived recently, sources said.
The Saudi embassy had identified the bomber and was coordinating with Lebanese investigators, Lebanon's national news agency said, citing a source close to the embassy.
Earlier on Wednesday the Lebanese army said its intelligence unit had arrested five men suspected of planning to kill senior security officials in the north of the country.
It said the men were part of a "terrorist cell" in Qalamoun, near the Mediterranean city of Tripoli. The army was still trying to track down the remaining cell members, it said.
Lebanon has been increasingly drawn into Syria's crisis. Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah has been fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces against the mainly Sunni Muslim rebels, who have also been supported by Lebanese Sunnis.
The violence has also spilled over the border, with rocket attacks on Shi'ite towns in the Bekaa Valley, close to the frontier with Syria, and bombings of Shi'ite and Sunni targets in Lebanon's main coastal cities.
LBCI/REUTERS
For more details, watch Bassam Bou Zeid's full report in the video above
Next
From South Lebanon to Bekaa: Israel’s plan to reconfigure border security