BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The suicide bomber who killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is a Palestinian member of an Islamic group linked to al-Qaida. A security (official), on condition of anonymity, identified the bomber as Ahmed Abu Adas, a Palestinian refugee who lived in the low-income Beirut neighborhood of Tarik Jadida. The source said the bomber's neighbors saw him leave his home a few hours before the attack that killed Hariri and eight other people. Security forces raided Abu Adas' house later in the day and seized a computer and documents, the source told UPI. Abu Adas is said to belong to a Muslim fundamentalist group linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. A group called the Organization of Nasrat and Jihad in Bilad Sham claimed responsibility for the attack, accusing Hariri of being an agent of the Saudi regime. Hariri has dual Lebanese-Saudi citizenship and is a close friend of the Saudi royal family. | Gonna suck being a Palestinian in Lebanon. Now, where did I put that nano-violin? |
Additional: DUBAI, Feb 14 (Reuters) - An unknown Islamist group said it killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in a suicide attack on Monday, calling him a Saudi agent in a video tape aired on Al Jazeera television. "For the sake of our mujahideen brothers in Saudi Arabia ... we decided to implement the just execution of those who support this regime," a bearded man wearing a white turban and black robe said in excerpts aired from the tape. "This was a martyrdom operation we carried out ... This is the beginning of many martyrdom operations against the infidels and apostates in the Levant," the man said, reading from a statement that described Hariri as an "agent". He sat in front of a black flag carrying the name "Group for Advocacy and Holy War in the Levant". The Levant is the historical name of the region including today's Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestinian territories and Jordan.
The statement said the attack was also "in revenge for the pious martyrs killed by security forces of the Saudi regime" and used a religious term for Saudi Arabia often used by al Qaeda militants fighting Riyadh's U.S.-allied government since 2003. It was not possible to pinpoint the speaker's origin from his Arabic accent, though it seemed to be Levantine. Al Jazeera said the tape named the suicide bomber as Ahmed Abu Adas. The channel earlier said its Beirut bureau had received a phone call from a man speaking foreign-accented Arabic claiming the attack in the name of the same group. The authenticity of the tape could not be verified. Past attacks in Iraq and elsewhere in the region have been the subject of claims by many groups, some of which have turned out not to be true. Hariri was a regular visitor to Saudi Arabia where he spent 20 years building a fortune in the construction industry that Forbes estimated at $3.8 billion on its 2003 World's Richest People list.Saudi Arabia condemned the Beirut attack as "evil". Lebanese Information Minister Elie al-Firzli told reporters the video tape was being studied. "We cannot rule out anything," he said.