Deadly suicide bomb attack in Shiite suburb of Beirut, Lebanon

Lebanon has arrested 11 people, mostly Syrians, over last week's Beirut bombings that killed 44 people, an attack whose original target was a hospital, officials said on Sunday.

"The detained include seven Syrians and two Lebanese, one of them a (would-be) suicide bomber and the other a trafficker who smuggled them across the border from Syria," Interior Minister Nuhad Mashnuq told a news conference.

The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group claimed responsibility for Thursday's attacks which hit a busy shopping street in Burj al-Barajneh, a suburb where the Shiite movement Hezbollah is popular.

"The whole suicide bombing network and its supporters were arrested in the 48 hours following the explosion," Mashnuq said, calling the arrests "an extraordinary achievement".

He said the seven Syrians were detained in a Palestinian refugee camp located in Burj al-Barajneh and a flat in the capital's eastern district of Ashrafieh that had been used to prepare the explosive belts. (AFP)

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