Lebanon Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said on Saturday that the results of the investigation of the attempted assassination of Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea were still “inconclusive.”
“The investigation is being well conducted, but, until now, no conclusive results have been reached,” Charbel told Future News television.
The minister added that security measures were in place to protect “all political figures under threat,” but he also expressed concern over “criminal methods” overpowering these measures.
Charbel said Thursday that the attempted assassination of Geagea, was “serious” and it was a “miracle” that he (Geagea) has escaped the assassination
Geagea, a leading Lebanese opposition figure and outspoken critic of the Syrian regime and Hezbollah arms , said he survived an assassination attempt outside his house on Wednesday.
The Christian leader told journalists he had been shot at twice by “snipers” as he was walking with bodyguards outside his fortified residence in Meerab, northeast of Beirut.
Iran connection
An Nahar reported last Thursday that based on initial investigations the shots were fired from a distance of about 1.5 kms ( about 0.90 miles) from the LF HQ in Meerab. The newspaper also reported that the initial investigation indicated that the weapon used by the snipers is “very sophisticated” and “virtually unavailable in Lebanon”. It concluded attackers used the “Steyr HS.50, with the 12.7mm caliber”, a sniper rifle manufactured in Austria but mainly sold to Iran.
Vienna was criticized in 2006 by London and Washington for having sold over 800 of these rifles to Tehran, according to The Telegraph newspaper
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