Lebanon’s interior minister Hassan al-Sabaa said Tuesday that the four Syrians arrested by Lebanon have confessed to bombing two buses in Lebanon last month. The men belonged to a small Palestinian group and had received orderes from Syrian intelligence forces to carry out the attack.
Sabaa has said that Fateh al-Islam, the group that is believed to have carried out the bombing, is part of the Syrian intelligence-security apparatus. But, Fateh al-Islam has denied any link to the bus bombs in the mainly Christian village of Ain Alaq.
The bombings took place on February 13, a day before the second anniversary of the assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, whose killing is blamed on Syria by many Lebanese. Damascus has been denying involvement in the attack. The February bus bombing has been added to a list of attacks being investigated by a UN inquiry into the Hariri murder.
The governing coalition leaders in Lebanon said the February 13 bombing was designed to prevent their supporters from attending a Beirut rally that had been arranged to mark the killing of Hariri and to bolster their camp against a political challenge by the opposition.
The opposition to the government includes Hezbollah and Amal, which are both close to Syria.
Political and sectarian tensions are running high in Lebanon. Repeated clashes have erupted between supporters and opponents of the government. The present political crisis arose when six pro-Syrian ministers resigned in November last over a cabinet endorsement of a UN tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri bombing.
