FILE/WEBSITE: Suspected leader of an al Qaeda-linked militant group that claimed responsibility for bombing the Iranian embassy in Beirut two months ago died in custody on Saturday, security sources said

Record ID: 858260

  • Title: FILE/WEBSITE: Suspected leader of an al Qaeda-linked militant group that claimed responsibility for bombing the Iranian embassy in Beirut two months ago died in custody on Saturday, security sources said
  • Date: 5th January 2014
  • Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (FILE - NOVEMBER 19, 2013) (REUTERS) PEOPLE GATHERING AT BLAST SITE IN FRONT OF THE IRANIAN EMBASSY ENTRANCE DAMAGE AND CARS WITH BROKEN GLASS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GATHERING AT BLAST SITE PEOPLE GATHERED AROUND BURNT CAR BUILDING DAMAGE HOLE IN GROUND PEOPLE GATHERING AT BLAST SITE DAMAGED CARS WITH BROKEN GLASSES VARIOUS OF BLAST SITE DAMAGED ENTRANCE OF IRANIAN EMBASSY VARIOUS OF BURNT SIGN AT EMBASSY ENTRANCE READING (Farsi, English, Arabic): 'EMBASSY OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN' VARIOUS OF DAMAGE AT BLAST SITE VARIOUS OF LEBANESE ARMY MEMBERS AT BLAST SITE VARIOUS OF DAMAGED MOTORCYCLE AT BLAST SITE
  • Embargoed: 20th January 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • City:
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVACF4Q1GYSVMNZS8TK2Q3RZPKW4
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: The suspected leader of an al Qaeda-linked militant group that claimed responsibility for bombing the Iranian embassy in Beirut two months ago died in custody on Saturday (January 4), security sources said.
    Majid bin Muhammad al-Majid, a Saudi national who was wanted by authorities in his own country, had been suffering from kidney failure and went into a coma on Friday, the sources said. He died in a military hospital in Beirut, they added.
    Majid was believed to be the leader of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which have claimed attacks across the region, most recently the double suicide assault on Iran's Beirut embassy, which killed at least 25 people.
    His identity was confirmed by Lebanese officials on Friday after DNA tests.
    In tweets at the time of the bombing, the Abdullah Azzam brigades threatened more attacks in Lebanon unless Iran pulled its forces out of Syria.
    In an audio recording uploaded to a social media website dated 2012, and purported to have been made by Majid, he directs his anger at Iran for its role in Syria: "The whole world has seen what the criminal (Bashar al-Assad) has done and how he is being supported by the criminal of Iran and the Shi'ite party (Hezbollah) in Lebanon, so show God your efforts in supporting his religion and show him your efforts in trying to support your brothers."
    Reuters is unable to independently verify this audio recording, which was uploaded to a social media website.
    An increasingly sectarian civil war in Syria has attracted Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim fighters from neighbouring countries as well as military support and economic aid from Iran.
    Last year Azzam Brigades, named after an associate of the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, were formally designated by the U.S. State Department as a 'foreign terrorist organisation'.
    The State Department said the group was divided into two branches: the Yusuf al-'Uyayri Battalions, named after a founder of Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula; and the Lebanon-based Ziyad al-Jarrah Battalions, named after one of the airliner hijackers who attacked New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.
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