The Lebanese army has arrested a leader of a unit in the al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades

The Lebanese army has arrested a leader of a unit in the al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which has been involved in recent bombings in the country.

The army said in a communiqué on Wednesday that the leader, Naim Abbas, was arrested by the army intelligence in the capital, Beirut.

The army further said that the al-Qaeda leader is being questioned under the supervision of the judiciary.

According to the Lebanese security forces, Abbas was arrested on suspicion of receiving booby-trapped cars transported by Omar Ibrahim al-Atrash, an extremist Sunni Muslim Sheikh. Atrash has been involved in two deadly bombings in the south of the capital last month.

On February 6, a military court in Lebanon charged the extremist Sheikh, 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 repeatedly hit by similar terrorist attacks in recent months. A large number of people have lost their lives in the bombings.

More than two dozen 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.