Arrest of One of the Perpetrators of the 2013 Attack on the Iranian Embassy in Beirut

Iranian news agencies report the 'arrest' of one of the perpetrators of the deadly suicide attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut in 2013. The official news agency IRNA identified this individual as 'Bahaa Hajir,' a member of the 'Abdullah Azzam Brigades,' stating that he was 'the communication link between the two suicide bombers and the planners of the attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut.' According to the report, Palestinian security forces in the 'Ain al-Hilweh' camp in southern Lebanon arrested Hajir on Tuesday night and handed him over to the Lebanese army. On November 19, 2013, two suicide bombings occurred in front of the Iranian embassy in Beirut, killing 23 people, including Ibrahim Ansari, Iran's cultural attaché in Lebanon, and injuring more than 150 others. Besides the cultural attaché and the wife of one of the Iranian diplomats, the other victims were Lebanese citizens, including Rizwan Faris, a Lebanese security officer protecting the Iranian embassy. IRNA quoted 'some observers' stating that the 'main target' of this explosion was the assassination of Ghazanfar Roknabadi, the then Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, who died two years later in the Mina incident in Saudi Arabia. At that time, a Radio Farda reporter in Beirut wrote, based on hospital sources, that many of the injured in the Beirut suicide attacks were Iranian. The first attacker crashed into the embassy door with an explosive belt, and the car bomb was stopped before entering the embassy building, while the second suicide bomber detonated himself and the vehicle. The extent of the destruction from these suicide attacks was so vast that all surrounding buildings were damaged, and many people were injured in their homes. At that time, the 'Abdullah Azzam Brigades,' which Iranian media described as 'a Salafi group affiliated with al-Qaeda,' claimed responsibility for the explosion in a statement. This group stated that the action was taken in retaliation for what it called Iran and Hezbollah's 'interference' in Syria. Lebanese security sources reported in December 2013 that they had identified one of the two suicide bombers at the Iranian embassy in Beirut, stating that the father of this suicide bomber had introduced himself to the Ministry of Defense for further investigations. This individual was named 'Moein Abu Zahr,' and his father stated that his son was affiliated with the group of 'Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir,' a radical Islamist cleric who clashed with Lebanese army forces in the Sidon area and went to Syria to fight against government forces after those events. In January of the same year, Lebanese media reported that the country's intelligence forces successfully arrested 'Majed al-Majed,' the Saudi leader of the 'Abdullah Azzam Brigades,' a group linked to al-Qaeda in Beirut. A representative of the Iranian parliament and Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, identified Saudi Arabia as responsible for this attack.