Lebanon said on Saturday it had arrested a man who was a key mastermind in a car bombing that killed a senior official of a violent Palestinian militant group and who has links to Israeli intelligence.Israel has dismissed accusations from the militant group Islamic Jihad that it was behind the May 26 attack which killed senior official Mahmoud Majzoub and his brother Nidal, also a member of Islamic Jihad, in the southern city of Sidon.
"Military intelligence was able to arrest one of the key people involved in the bombing that led to the martyrdom of the Majzoub brothers," the army said in a statement. "Documents and equipment linked with the crime were seized with him, and he has links to the intelligence of the Israeli enemy." A senior security official told Reuters the suspect's links with Israel were "100 percent" confirmed but declined to elaborate. There was no comment from Israeli officials.
Two days after the explosion, rockets fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel wounded an Israel Defense Forces soldier, prompting Israel to launch air strikes against Syrian-backed Palestinian and Lebanese guerrillas. Islamic Jihad denied it had claimed responsibility for the rocket attack into northern Israel although it had earlier vowed revenge for the Majzoub killings.