Lebanese Sunni sheikh charged over Beirut bombings

A military court in Lebanon has charged an extremist Sunni Muslim sheikh in connection with two deadly bombings in the south of the capital, Beirut, last month.

According to reports on Wednesday, Judge Saqr Saqr charged Omar Ibrahim al-Atrash along with five others with the January 21 bombings in Haret Hreik, a Shia-dominated neighborhood, which is a stronghold of the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah.

Atrash, who was detained on January 22, admitted to ties with three wanted individuals, as well as to the al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and al-Nusra Front, the Lebanese army said at the time.

The Lebanese capital has been hit by several deadly bomb attacks over the past few months.
At least 25 people, including Iran’s cultural attaché to Beirut, were killed and more than 150 others injured in November last year after two explosions struck near the Iranian Embassy in southern Beirut.

Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the twin bomb attacks.