Lebanese minister: Bus bombings last month were ordered by Syria

Four Syrians held by the Lebanese authorities have confessed to bombing two buses in Lebanon last month, killing three people, Lebanon's interior minister said on Tuesday. Hassan al-Sabaa said the men were members of a small Palestinian group and were ordered by Syrian intelligence forces to carry out the attack.

The radical group, Fateh al-Islam, broke away last year from Fateh al-Intifada, another Palestinian group. "It is no secret that Fateh al-Islam is Fateh al-Intifada and Fateh al-Intifada is part of the Syrian intelligence-security apparatus," Sabaa told reporters.

A fifth man, also Syrian, was on the run, Sabaa said.

Fateh al-Islam denied any link to the bus bombs in the Christian village of Ain Alaq. "If a man had been killed in the Amazon forest, Fateh al-Islam would have been accused of his murder," the group said in a statement.

The bombing on February 13 was a day before the second anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, whose killing many Lebanese blame on Syria. Damascus denies involvement in the attack.

The bombing had been added to a list of attacks being investigated by a United Nations inquiry into the Hariri killing.

Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said the men had been instructed to carry out the attack before February 14.

"They said that their bosses had asked them to be ready to carry out another operation," Aridi said, adding that the target was to be an office of the Kataeb Party, a Christian faction which is part of the anti-Syrian governing coalition.

Pierre Gemayel, a cabinet minister and Kataeb leader, was assassinated in November. Ain Alaq is in the area of Bikfaya, home to Gemayel's father and Kataeb leader, former President Amin Gemayel.

Security sources said earlier that six members of Fateh al-Islam had confessed to the Ain Alaq bombs.

Fateh al-Islam first emerged in the Palestinian refugee camp of Bedawi in north Lebanon.

Governing coalition leaders said the February 13 bombing was designed to deter their supporters from attending a Beirut rally to mark the Hariri killing and to bolster their camp against a political challenge by the opposition.

The opposition includes Hezbollah and Amal, which are both close to Damascus.