Beirut to complain to UNSC about Israel

Charges that Israel is behind a local network that killed Jihad operatives.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
lebanon explosion 298.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
lebanon explosion 298.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
The Lebanese government declared that it would launch a complaint to the United Nations Security Council against an Israeli spy network, which it claims has been operating in Lebanon, said Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi following a Cabinet meeting. Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said Thursday that an Israeli aircraft detonated the car bomb that killed two Islamic Jihad officials in south Lebanon last month. 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. In Jerusalem, an Israeli military spokesman on Thursday denied any Israeli involvement in the incident. 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 Hizbullah officials in 1999 and 2003, and the slaying of the son of Ahmed Jibril, leader of the 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 charged with 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.