• Published 00:00 15.06.06
  • Latest update 00:00 15.06.06

Lebanon says IAF detonated car bomb which killed 2 Palestinians

Lebanese defense minister says Israel behind bombing deaths of two members of Islamic Jihad.

By The Associated Press

BEIRUT - An Israeli aircraft detonated the car bomb that killed two officials of Palestinian militant group in south Lebanon last month, Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said Thursday.

The government has decided to complain to the UN Security Council about Israeli attacks in Lebanon, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said following a Cabinet meeting that heard the defense minister's report.

Murr briefed the Cabinet on the May 26 car bombing that killed Mahmoud Majzoub, a senior Islamic Jihad official, and his brother as they walked out of their home in the southern city of Sidon. Both men were Lebanese citizens.

Earlier Thursday, Murr told reporters at his office that the state's investigation had found an aircraft was looking out for the Majzoubs via a camera on the ground.

"The bomb was detonated from this aircraft," he said.

Murr said the main suspect had received "bags filled with explosives" delivered by Israeli sea-borne commandos north of Beirut.

On Saturday, the Lebanese army said it had arrested Mahmoud Rafeh, 59, a retired police officer, for the killing of the Majzoubs. Rafeh "had links to Israeli intelligence," the army said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the army said Rafeh had confessed to killing the Majzoub brothers as well as to other operations - including the killing of officials of the militant Hezbollah group in 1999 and 2003, and the slaying of the son of Ahmed Jibril, leader of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in 2002.

Murr told reporters that Rafeh's group was the most dangeous to be discovered in Lebanon in 30 years.

Lebanon has detained many people on charges of spying for Israel. The country considers itself at war with its southern neighbor and bans its citizens from having any contact with the Jewish state.

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