- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 04:31 05:49 12:21 15:48 18:47 20:05
A Lebanese woman whose son was killed at the Iranian embassy attack in Beirut last November, holds a placard shows a portrait of her son and other victims, as she attends a press conference, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 3, 2014. DNA tests confirmed that Majid al-Majid who is in Lebanese government custody is the alleged leader of an al-Qaida-linked group that has conducted attacks across the Middle East before shifting its focus to Syria's civil war, Lebanese authorities said Friday. Families of those killed in the embassy bombing demanded that al-Majid, who has not been charged in the attack, be tried in Lebanon and not be sent to his homeland. (AP)
The suspected leader of an Al Qaeda-linked militant group that claimed responsibility for bombing the Iranian embassy in Beirut two months ago died in custody on Saturday, security sources said.
Majid bin Muhammad al-Majid, a Saudi national who was wanted by authorities in his own country, had been suffering from kidney failure and went into a coma on Friday, the sources said. He died in a military hospital in Beirut, they added.
Majid was believed to be the leader of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which have claimed attacks across the region, most recently the double suicide assault on Iran's Beirut embassy, which killed at least 25 people.
His identity was confirmed by Lebanese officials on Friday after DNA tests.
In tweets at the time of the bombing, the Abdullah Azzam brigades threatened more attacks in Lebanon unless Iran pulled its forces out of Syria.
Last year Azzam Brigades, named after an associate of the late Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, were formally designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organisation.
The State Department said the group was divided into two branches: the Yusuf al-'Uyayri Battalions, named after a founder of Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula; and the Lebanon-based Ziyad al-Jarrah Battalions, named after one of the airliner hijackers who attacked New York and Washington on Sept 11, 2001.
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