Abdullah Azzam Brigades Plotting to Assassinate Parliament Speaker
Investigations with detained extremists revealed that Speaker Nabih Berri was allegedly the target of an assassination bid, local newspapers reported on Friday.
According to As Safir and al-Akhbar newspapers, Lebanese national Mahmoud Abou Aalfa, who is affiliated to the Qaida-linked Abdulllah Azzam Brigades, confessed that the extremist group was plotting to assassinate Berri, who is the head of the AMAL movement.
Aalfa had reportedly acknowledged that several people were tasked with monitoring the entrances of the Beirut neighborhood of Ain el-Tineh and the places that Berri frequently visits.
The suspect pointed out, according to newspapers, that the scheme was to target the Speaker with a booby-trapped car by a suicide bomber or more.
Security sources unveiled that scheme was reaching the zero-hour.
Security agencies advised Berri to boost his security measures and lessen his movement amid the delicate circumstances.
The newspapers also reported that another group was also tasked with monitoring the residence of former Minister Wiam Wahab, who is head of the Arab Tawhid Party leader.
Media reports said on February 20 that the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau had arrested, ahead the twin blasts that targeted the Beirut suburb of Bir Hasan, Aalfa who confessed of being tasked by the Lebanese Sheikh Sirajeddine Zouraykat of the Abdulllah Azzam Brigades with monitoring al-Manar TV and the Iranian Cultural Center.
The twin suicide car bombings in Bir Hasan near the Iranian Cultural Center killed at least six people and wounded more than 100 others, the second attack in less than four months targeting Iranian interests in Lebanon.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the double bombing, vowing additional attacks in retaliation to Hizbullah's involvement in the Syria war.
On Wednesday, the head of the Lebanese Democratic Party, MP Talal Arslan, was urged to boost security measures after security agencies obtained information that he might be the target of an assassination bid.
Earlier in February, media reports had said that former premier Najib Miqati has become a target for assassination in light of their circulation of a security document alleging that a political figure in Beirut or the northern city of Tripoli may be targeted by a suicide bomber.
Miqati hails from Tripoli.
Reports had said that a terrorist cell was plotting the assassination of several officials and judges, including Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat.
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