A Lebanese army General said Majid al-Majid, the leader of Abdullah Azzam Brigades that was in charge of attacks across the Middle East, has died in custody in Lebanon.
The General, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Majid al-Majid died on Saturday after suffering kidney failure.
Al-Majid, a Saudi citizen was detained in Lebanon late last month and had been held at a secret location.
A medical official said Friday that Al-Majed was being held in a military hospital because "he is in poor health".
Another official familiar with the investigation said the interrogation of Majed al-Majed "has been delayed because he is in poor health," and that the suspect is being "heavily guarded" at the Baabda military hospital near Beirut, AlAkhbar reported.
According to the medical source, who had been treating al-Majed before his arrest without knowing who he was, he suffers from kidney failure and requires regular dialysis.
"On December 27, the hospital where Majed was being treated contacted the Red Cross to arrange his transfer to another hospital," said the source.
But before the suspect arrived at the second facility, "the Lebanese army intelligence intercepted the ambulance and arrested Majed," the source said, adding that neither the hospital nor the ambulance teams had prior knowledge of who Majed was.
Al-Majed is the suspected head of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades – Ziad al-Jarrah Battalion that claimed responsibility for an attack in November on the Iranian embassy in Beirut that killed 25 people, including Iran’s cultural attache in Beirut Ebrahim Ansari.
According to Islamist websites, al-Majed was announced as leader of the Brigades in 2012.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades was formed in 2009 and is believed to have branches in both the Arabian Peninsula and Lebanon, but may have been active as early as 2004.
The reports come two days after a Lebanese minister told AFP that al-Majed had been arrested by the army’s intelligence services, although no official statement has yet been issued over the detention.
According to Lebanese state media, officials confirmed the suspect’s identity through DNA testing.
"Al-Majed’s DNA was compared with those of his cousin, which confirmed his identity," NNA reported.
The Iranian embassy in Beirut requested on Thursday access to the investigation into the double suicide bombing.
"The (caretaker) Foreign Ministry received a memo from Iranian authorities in which they asked to stay informed about the investigation with al-Majed, considering that the explosion took place on an Iranian soil," caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour told LBCI television.
For it’s part, the Lebanese news site Naharnet reported that Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Rokn Abadi announced that an Iranian intelligence delegation participated in inspecting the scene of the explosion near the embassy in Beirut’s Southern suburbs.
"Both Lebanese and Iranian authorities agreed that Iran will take part in the investigation," the Iranian ambassador said.
In 2009, Lebanon sentenced Majed in absentia to life in prison for belonging to a different extremist group, the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam.
Earlier today, senior parliamentary officials in Tehran disclosed that Saudi Arabia has offered to pay $3bln to the Lebanese government in return for the extradition of Al-Majed, the suspected head of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades – Ziad al-Jarrah Battalion, that claimed responsibility for the November attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut which killed 25 people.
“The Saudi government has considered $3bln for the extradition of the individual behind the Iranian embassy blast in Lebanon, indicating that the remarks he might make are vitally important for the Saudi government,” Vice-Chairman of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mansour Haqiqatpour told FNA on Saturday.
“Saudi Arabia has demanded Lebanon to extradite Majed in return for $3bln,” he reiterated.
Haqiqatpour also underlined that Tehran is entitled to file a lawsuit at the UN against Saudi Arabia because the mid November attack was conducted on the Iranian embassy in Beirut.
