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“Lebanese troops shoot suspected suicide bomber”
Associated Press ^ | May 31, 2008 | Hussein Dakroub
Posted on May 31, 2008 1:26:44 PM PDT by decimon

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “BEIRUT — Lebanese troops shot and killed a suicide bomber near Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp Saturday, a senior military official said.

The official said the Palestinian man wearing an explosive belt approached an army checkpoint just outside the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon.

Soldiers manning the army checkpoint saw the young man climb out of a car and throw a hand grenade which failed to explode, the official said. The soldiers warned the man not to move, but he ignored the orders and moved quickly toward them with his hands on his waist.

The man, wearing an explosive belt of 4.41 pounds of TNT and 2.2 pounds of metal balls, tried to blow himself up in an armored personnel carrier with the aim of killing as many soldiers as possible, the official told The Associated Press.

Troops opened fire and killed the man instantly, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

A military explosive expert removed the explosive belt the man was wearing, and an investigation is under way.

The would-be suicide bomber was identified as Mahmoud Yassin Ahmad, a 28-year-old Palestinian who lives in the Ein el-Hilweh camp.”