Report: ISIL Names 'Emir' for Lebanon, Sets Up 'Suicide Bombers Training Camp'
The extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has appointed an “emir”, or leader, over Lebanon and has set up a camp to train would-be suicide bombers and send them to Lebanon, a media report said on Sunday.
According to information obtained by LBCI television, security agencies' investigations have revealed that “the ISIL has appointed Abdul Salam al-Ordoni as an emir over Lebanon.”
Ordoni has been giving instructions to Al-Monzer al-Hasan, the Lebanese intermediary between the ISIL and the two suicide bombers who were busted at the Duroy Hotel in Raouche, LBCI said.
The interrogation of detained Saudi would-be suicide bomber Abdul Rahman al-Shenifi, who survived the Duroy blast, confirmed that the duo were sent to Lebanon by the ISIL, the TV network added.
“According to the plan devised for them by Al-Monzer al-Hasan, the attack on al-Saha Restaurant (in Hizbullah's stronghold Dahieh) required one of them to enter the restaurant and open fire from a machinegun at the biggest number of customers before blowing up his suicide vest,” LBCI's report said.
“The second suicide bomber would blow himself up when medics and citizens gather for rescue operations,” it added.
Investigations also revealed that the Saudi operatives had three suicide vests in their possession, one weighing three kilograms and the other two weighing 10 kilos each.
"Shenifi was the one who noticed the arrival of General Security forces to the hotel. When General Security members arrived at their room's door, (Ahmed Abdul Rahman) al-Thuwani armed the suicide vest and hurled it at the door where it exploded, which resulted in his death and the wounding of Shenifi and the General Security members,” LBCI said.
On Saturday, the TV network said Shenifi told his interrogators that a Syrian man informed him and his partners in the Turkish city of Istanbul that their mission was to attack security forces and army troops in Lebanon.
But later, al-Monzer al-Hasan, the man who provided the Duroy bombers with explosives, asked the two Saudi militants to change their target and instead attack al-Saha Restaurant in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
On Wednesday, al-Thuwani detonated a suicide vest at the Duroy Hotel room during a raid by General Security officers.
LBCI reported on Friday that the suicide bomber and his accomplice had arrived in Lebanon from Istanbul where they had spent five days.
The TV network said investigations have highlighted a “key role” for al-Hasan in several suicide bombings.
It said al-Hasan receives $50,000 for facilitating the mission of every suicide bomber.
Al-Hasan's picture was circulated by the General Security agency on Thursday.
Wednesday's suicide attack was the third in Lebanon in less than a week and sparked fears of renewed violence in a country that has been deeply affected by the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Y.R.
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