Investigators hunt two men suspected of involvement in Hajj assassination

 

 

Investigators are searching for two suspects who purchased the vehicle used in the car bombing that killed senior General Francois Hajj just two days before the attack, security sources said Thursday. Security sources in the South told The Daily Star that three men from Sidon”s Tameer district who were detained and questioned by investigators had previously owned the vehicle and had sold it to a fourth man from Iqlim al-Kharroub.

 

The fourth man was also detained and questioned and claimed to have sold the vehicle, a 30-year-old, olive green, BMW 320, to two unidentified men just two days before the attack. The fourth owner of the vehicle said he did not know the names of the two buyers, as they paid him in cash, took the car and left promising to contact him in order to complete registration procedures, but never did.

 

A bearded man, whose presence aroused suspicion at the blast site, was also detained briefly and questioned at the scene but later released.

 

Investigators are also searching for a long-range radio receiver in the scattered wreckage of the booby-trapped vehicle. The receiver, believed to have been attached to the detonator which triggered the blast, allowed the perpetrator to set off the bomb from a safe distance.

 

A security source told The Daily Star that investigators are now searching for the receiver”s robust metal casing that would have survived the firestorm caused by the explosion. “The site of the blast was carefully chosen. It allowed the perpetrator to stand anywhere in a radius of 180 degrees from the blast zone, as far as 500 to 1,000 meters from the blast site, and detonate the explosive device remotely,” the source said.
 

The source said that the area where the bomb went off is a “strictly monitored security zone” and the only “corridor” that army officers and Defense Ministry staff use to get to work every morning. “Footage from two cameras at two bank ATM machines along the general”s route are being examined by investigators,” the source added.

 

Eyewitness reports indicate that the booby-trapped vehicle packed with 35 kilograms of powerful explosives, was brought to the site only “minutes” before Hajj passed along the road. “The perpetrators must have known the general”s route and that he would be passing at that specific time and on that specific day,” the source said.

 

Residue that was not consumed in the fire from the blast is being examined by investigators to determine what type of explosive was used and in which country it was likely to have been manufactured.

 

The results of DNA tests on body parts recovered at the blast site are expected on Friday. Hajj and his bodyguard Khairallah Hedwan both died in the blast which tore limbs off bodies, thus the tests were required to know “which arm or leg goes with which body,” the source said.

 

Picture: (AP Photo/Ahmad Omar)