IDs Used by Bir Hassan Suicide Attackers Released, Hotel Where They Spent Last Hours under Inspection

OTV aired on Thursday evening the fake identity cards used by the suicide attackers behind the blasts in Beirut's Bir Hassan neighborhood as security forces embarked on searching the hotel where they stayed on their last night.

"Security forces are trying to examine the pictures on the IDs to determine whether they are real or fake,” OTV said.

Meanwhile, LBCI television reported also on Thursday evening that State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr ordered the army intelligence to inspect the Sheraton Four Seasons Hotel in the Beirut neighborhood of Verdun, as reports said it was where the attackers spent their last night before their deadly operation.

"The army intelligence searched one room in the hotel and confiscated several possessions of two people that stayed there,” LBCI said.

The same source noted that the hotel's administration gave investigators all the information it has about the two men, as well as the recorded footage of the Sheraton's security cameras.

An eyewitness at the hotel remarked that the two men's accent was not that of Syrians or of people who hail from the Gulf, according to the television channel.

LBCI added: “The suspects resided there for four days and they had fake Lebanese IDs, one of them belonged to a person who hails from Beirut, and the other to a person from the Iqlim al-Kharroub town of Barja.”

"Investigation is now focused on trying to reveal how the suicide attackers, who are not from Lebanon, were able to enter Lebanese territories as well as attempting to identify to which group they belonged. The probe is also working on uncovering information about the car that was used in the operation, which was taken from Beirut to the Bekaa and later to Syria.”

At least 23 people were killed and more than 145 others were wounded in a twin blast that took place on Tuesday morning near the Iranian Embassy in the neighborhood of Bir Hassan in Beirut's southern suburbs.

A security official said the first suicide attacker was on a motorcycle that carried two kilograms of explosives. He blew himself up at the large black main gate of the Iranian mission, damaging the three-story facility.

Less than two minutes later, the second suicide attacker driving a car rigged with 50 kilograms of explosives struck about 10 meters away, the official said.

The al-Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the bombings, according to the Twitter page of a cleric linked to the group.

"The Abdullah Azzam brigades - the Hussein bin Ali cells - are behind the attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut," Sheikh Sirajeddine Zuraiqat, the group's religious guide, posted on Twitter.