UPDATE, 19/8/13, 9:40: A judge in a Lebanese military court has now officially indicted a Danish citizen of Palestinian background for planning a terrorist attack against Shiite targets in Lebanon. The man is reported to have family members living in several places in Denmark. The Dane is alleged to be a member of a terrorist group called al-Nasef.
The Danish Embassy in Lebanon confirmed that a Danish citizen was arrested last week in Lebanon, but declined further comment.
ORIGINAL, 14/8/13, 10:56: A Danish man with a Palestinian background may have been one of three men who attempted a suicide bombing at a checkpoint in Lebanon last week. Lebanese media reported that the three men – one Syrian, one Palestinian and a Danish citizen of Palestinian origin – rolled up to a checkpoint in the town of Arsal in the Bekka region last Friday night in a Mitsubishi with no licence plates or other visible identification. When security police stopped the vehicle, the Palestinian man jumped out of the car wearing a belt loaded with explosives. Police shot and killed the man before he could detonate the bombs.
The vehicle was searched and another belt containing explosives was found along with a Kalashnikov rifle. The Syrian and suspected Dane were taken into custody.
The Foreign Ministry and the Danish ambassador to Lebanon declined to confirm whether a Dane had been part of the incident.
"I have seen a report about a shootout in northern Lebanon where a Danish citizen was allegedly involved,” Rolf Holmboe, the Danish ambassador to Lebanon, told Berlingske newspaper. “We are investigating but have no comment.”
The media arm of Hezbollah, al-Manar, reported that the Lebanese military said that one of the men arrested was of “Palestinian origin with a European passport”.
