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Top Militant Said to Die After Arrest in Lebanon Top Militant Said to Die After Arrest in Lebanon
(about 3 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The leader of a group with links to Al Qaeda that carried out attacks across the Middle East before shifting its focus to Syria’s civil war died on Saturday while in custody in Lebanon, the Lebanese Army said. BEIRUT, Lebanon — The leader of a Lebanon-based affiliate of Al Qaeda who was arrested recently died Saturday while in custody in Lebanon, officials said.
In a short statement, the army said the militant, Majid bin Muhammad al-Majid “died this morning while undergoing treatment at the central military hospital after his health deteriorated.” It did not elaborate. The officials also said that the man suspected of carrying out a suicide attack in Beirut last week was a Lebanese citizen whose cousin had fought alongside the rebels in Syria’s civil war.
Earlier, a Lebanese Army general said Mr. Majid died after experiencing kidney failure. The general was speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The state-run National News Agency said Mr. Majid had died “after his health conditions deteriorated.” Recent car bomb attacks in civilian areas have raised fears that Lebanon is slipping toward the same sectarian-fueled strife that is driving Syria’s civil war. The two countries share an intricate network of religious and political ties that have been inflamed by the Syrian conflict.
Mr. Majid, a Saudi citizen, was detained in Lebanon late last month and had been held at a secret location. Hezbollah, the Shiite military group and political party, has stood by President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, sending fighters to support his army. And many of Lebanon’s Sunnis sympathize with the Sunni-led rebels. Some have sent arms or join the rebels.
He was the commander of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a Sunni militant group that is an offshoot of Al Qaeda, and one of the 85 most-wanted individuals in his native Saudi Arabia. The bombings in Lebanon have raised the specter of attacks by militants linked to Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is a Sunni organization that denounces Shiite Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah as heretics.
The State Department designated his group a foreign terrorist organization in 2012, freezing any assets it holds in the United States and barring Americans from doing business with the group. Lebanon’s army said Saturday that the detained militant, Majid bin Muhammad al-Majid, a Saudi who led a Lebanon-based Al Qaeda affiliate, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, died from kidney failure in a military hospital. His arrest was announced last week.
The group has claimed responsibility for attacks throughout the region, including the 2010 bombing of a Japanese oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and several rocket strikes into Israel from Lebanon. Mr. Majid’s group claimed responsibility for a double suicide bombing near the Iranian Embassy in Beirut in November that killed at least 23 people.
The most recent attack claimed by the group was the double suicide bombing in November outside the Iranian Embassy in Beirut that killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens. A security official said that Mr. Majid, an international fugitive, had entered Lebanon two weeks before his arrest under a false identity to receive medical care. He was arrested outside of Beirut and taken to a military hospital.
Reports surfaced about his arrest in Lebanon early last week. Security officials eventually confirmed they had a suspect in custody, but they said they were not certain of his identity. On Friday, the Lebanese confirmed his identity after a DNA test. Also on Saturday, Lebanese officials said they believed that a suicide bomber who blew up his car last week in a neighborhood where Hezbollah holds sway was a 19-year-old Lebanese citizen from an area near Syria.
Mr. Majid was believed to have had serious kidney problems that required dialysis. He was an important militant figure in the region, and the Abdullah Azzam Brigades grew from a relatively small outfit to a larger terrorist group after he took over in mid-2012. He succeeded the organization’s previous leader, Saleh al-Qarawi, who was gravely wounded in Pakistan. The security official said the ID card of the suspect, Qutaiba al-Satem, was found with seared edges in a building near the bomb site. Investigators believe that it was blown there by the blast, the official said.
According to Lebanese newspapers, Mr. Majid was detained during the last week of December while on his way from Beirut to the eastern Bekaa Valley, which borders Syria. Reports said he was captured while in an ambulance after he had undergone dialysis in Beirut. Mr. Satem’s father told the authorities after the blast that he knew nothing about any relationship his son might have had with terrorist groups, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation. The father added that Mr. Satem was close to one of his cousins, who had been fighting alongside the rebels in Syria.
In spring 2013, after the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah announced that it was fighting alongside Syrian government troops against the Syrian rebels, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades began to target Hezbollah as well — and by extension, the group’s Iranian patrons. On Thursday, a Twitter feed associated with a Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda claimed that the group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, had carried out the bombing in revenge for Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria.
Mr. Majid was taken into custody three days after Saudi Arabia pledged a $3 billion aid package to the Lebanese Army, a move seen as a Saudi attempt to counter the influence of Hezbollah. It threatened further attacks on Hezbollah targets, calling the bombing “a first, small payment from the heavy account that awaits those wicked criminals.” The claim’s authenticity could not be confirmed.