Lebanon suicide bomber was a wanted Saudi: Source

AFP , Thursday 26 Jun 2014

A suicide bomber who blew himself when police raided his hotel room in Beirut was a Saudi wanted by authorities in the kingdom, an informed source in Riyadh said Thursday.

"His name is Abdul Rahman Nasser al-Shenifi, 20, and he was wanted by the interior ministry," the source close to security authorities told AFP.

But the bomber did not figure on the kingdom's list of most-wanted militants, the source added.

The man detonated his explosives when Lebanese security forces stormed his room of the Duroy Hotel on Wednesday, killing himself and wounding 10 others.

An accomplice who survived the blast was also a Saudi, according to Lebanese authorities.

The raid followed the arrest Friday in a hotel in the nearby Hamra district of the capital of a Frenchman of Comoran origin on suspicion of plotting to carry out suicide bombings in Lebanon on behalf of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

That is the same group that has spearheaded the offensive by Sunni Arab militants that has swept up a big swathe of northern and north-central Iraq this month and also made gains in neighbouring Syria.

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