Bir Hassan Death Toll Rises to 10, DNA Confirms al-Mghayyar One of Suicide Bombers
State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr announced Thursday that DNA tests have confirmed that Palestinian national Nidal al-Mghayyar is one of the two suicide bombers who blew up two bomb-laden cars Wednesday in Bir Hassan.
“The DNA tests undergone by Nidal al-Mghayyar's father have matched the DNA of one of the suicide attackers,” state-run National News Agency quoted Saqr as saying.
A fake ID carrying al-Mghayyar's picture was found wednesday at the site of the blast. The Army Command later circulated the photo, describing al-Mghayyar as a “dangerous fugitive.”
The man's father consequently recognized the picture of his son and headed to an army intelligence post to give his testimony.
NNA described al-Mghayyar on Wednesday as a supporter of fugitive Islamist cleric Ahmed al-Asir.
Later on Wednesday, a number of citizens torched a house and properties belonging to Nidal's family in the southern town of al-Bissariyeh.
LBCI television said al-Mghayyar had "worked with his father in the business of bread distribution in al-Bissariyeh and the neighboring towns.”
Quoting high-ranking security sources, LBCI said he was “a Palestinian young man who had been living with his family since several years,” describing him as “very religious and a follower of the Salafist ideology.”
“He was attracted by the movement of Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir and he used to frequent the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque,” the fugitive cleric's former headquarters, the sources said, adding that “he took part in demonstrations and road-blocking protests.”
According to the same sources, al-Mghayyar had left Lebanon two months before the deadly Abra battle, which saw the Lebanese Army seize control of the Islamist cleric's security zone following fierce clashes.
After entering Syria, al-Mghayyar joined the Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front.
“Al-Asir had reportedly sent him to fight against Hizbullah in Qusayr” in Syria's Homs province, the security sources said.
LBCI said “at the time, the army circulated al-Mghayyar's photograph, describing him as a dangerous fugitive, before circulating the same picture on Wednesday” in the wake of the twin bombings.
Meanwhile, a health ministry source said Thursday that the toll from Wednesday's double suicide car bombing near an Iranian cultural center in Beirut's Bir Hassan has risen to 10.
"The death toll in the blasts has risen to 10 after the remains of an additional four people found at the site of the explosion were identified through DNA testing," the source told Agence France Presse.
On Wednesday, the health ministry had put the death toll at six, with 129 people injured in the attack.
A judicial source said work was still underway to identify the second suicide bomber.
The attack was claimed by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a jihadist group inspired by al-Qaida.
The cultural center is located in the same neighborhood as the Iranian embassy, which was hit by a double bombing in November that killed 25 people and was also claimed by the Azzam Brigades.
The group said Wednesday's attack was to punish Hizbullah and Tehran for their role in the conflict in Syria.
Extremist groups have claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in recent months against areas considered strongholds of Hizbullah that have killed dozens of civilians.
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