Lebanon blasts reflect spillover of Iran-Saudi proxy war in Syria

latimes.com ^ | January 2, 2014, 5:09 p.m. | Ramin Mostaghim and Carol J. Williams

[BenLurkin]

TEHRAN -- Two deadly bombings in Beirut over the last week and the arrest of a fugitive Saudi militant in the Nov. 19 attack on Iran's embassy in the Lebanese capital reflect the escalating spillover of a proxy war in Syria.

Iranian Shiite Muslims and rival Sunnis in Saudi Arabia have been battling for years for dominance in the Middle East. But the rivalry has intensified since May, when the Lebanon-based and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia made clear it had intervened in Syria's civil war on the side of the embattled Shiite-aligned government.

...

Lebanese officials disclosed to news agencies this week that they had arrested Majid Majid, a Saudi citizen who commands the Al Qaeda-aligned Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a Sunni militia with factions in Lebanon and on the Arabian Peninsula. The extremist group named for a Palestinian mentor to Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks, including the Iranian Embassy bombing six weeks ago that killed 23 people

...

A senior Iranian lawmaker commended Lebanon's security forces for their capture of Majid and declared it "noteworthy" that a Saudi was considered to have orchestrated the twin suicide bombings of the embassy that killed Tehran's cultural attache and the wife of another diplomat.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin.