BREAKING NEWS

Lebanon detains top suspect in car bomb terror campaign

BEIRUT - Lebanese security forces have detained a Sunni militant suspected of recruiting suicide bombers and assembling car bombs for a radical group that was behind attacks on Iranian interests in Beirut, security sources said on Friday.

They said Hassan Abu Afleh, arrested in Beirut on Saturday, is suspected of being a leading figure in the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, the group that claimed responsibility for Wednesday's twin suicide attack near the Iranian cultural centre that killed eight people.

The same group said it was behind an attack in November on the Iranian embassy.

It follows the arrest last week of Naim Abbas, another leading militant identified by one of the security sources as working for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - a hardline Sunni group that is fighting in Syria.

Details of the latest arrest had not emerged sooner because of the ongoing investigation.