On Sunday, Lebanese police arrested a suspect in connection with a pair of suicide bombings in the southern district of Beirut back in November. The bombings killed 50 people in a Shiite neighborhood in Beirut.
The Lebanon security officials identified Abu Talha as the one responsible for killing dozens of people. At dawn Sunday, Abu Talha was arrested in a raid in the northern city of Tripoli. He was captured in a special operation carried out by an elite unit of the Internal Security Force (ISF).
Yahoo News reported that the suspect belonged to a group that was also planning other bombing attacks around Lebanon.Police officials said that Abu Talha was the chief coordinator of a cell that prepared a series of bomb blasts in Lebanon, including in Beirut's Burj al-Barajneh district.
Extremist Islamic State group claimed that they were responsible for the attack. The bombings struck a Shiite crowd in the southern area of the capital and has shattered the relative calmness of the Lebanon that had held for more than a year now. Lebanon remained somewhat safe despite the civil war raging in neighboring Syria.
Abu Talha or also known as Khaled Seifeddine Zeineddine was in communication with the Islamic State in Raqqa. The security sources had been monitoring him for a long period of time. The police officials had been gathering information since the arrest of Bilal al-Baqqar, who was also part of the IS group and was a prominent member.
It was through email that the ISF confirmed it had already captured Abu Talha on a residential building in Tripoli. It was also stated on the email that he was being interrogated. Lebanese Interior Minister Nuhad Mashnug reported that 11 people were already arrested over the bombings in November.
Meanwhile, the US already warned its citizens not to travel in Lebanon. The State Department said that sudden outbreaks of violence can occur at any time in Lebanon, and armed clashes have occurred in major cities.
