Suspect arrested over Lebanese mosque bombings
Lebanese security forces arrested a suspect on Saturday in connection with the devastating double bombing the day before that killed at least 47 people in the northern city of Tripoli, the state news agency said.
The National News Agency identified the suspect as Sheik Ahmad Al Ghareeb, and said police took him into custody at his home in the Miniyeh region outside Tripoli. It said Al Ghareeb, who has ties to a Sunni organisation that enjoys good relations with Lebanons powerful Shia Hezbollah militant group, appears in surveillance video at the site of one of the explosions.
He's pro'ly not feeling so good right now... | The coordinated explosions on Friday outside two mosques in Tripoli, a predominantly Sunni city, raised already simmering sectarian tensions in fragile Lebanon, heightening fears the country could be slipping into a cycle of revenge attacks between its Sunni and Shia communities. For many Lebanese, the bombings also were seen as the latest evidence that Syrias bloody civil war with its dark sectarian overtones is increasingly drawing in its smaller neighbour.
Lebanese police officials said on Saturday that 47 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in the attack. Some 300 people were still in the hospital a day after the attack, 65 of them in critical condition, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Posted by: Steve White 2013-08-25 |