Bkirki, Al-Ahbash Deny News about Bomb Threat against Catholic School

Both the seat of the Maronite church and the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects, aka Al-Ahbash, denied on Friday reports about a bomb threat against a Catholic school in Lebanon.

Bkirki's secretariat said in a statement that reports about the threat were not true.

"The patriarchate never received such a phone call," the statement said.

For its part, Al-Ahbash group issued a statement in which it said "some people distributed an SMS saying (Maronite) Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir received a phone call from Al-Ahbash that involved a threat to bomb a Catholic school on Monday at 1:00 p.m."

"This is a suspicious, malicious and false message that is aimed at stirring fear, panic and sedition," the statement added.

"Those behind this message could be parties plotting to execute terrorist operations and attribute them to others," Al-Ahbash warned.