Security for Speaker Nahbi Berri was stepped up after reports that senior Abdullah Azzam Brigades commander Sheikh Sirajeddine Zreiqat had tasked Mahmoud Abu Alfa, another Brigades member, with planning a suicide attack on Berri’s residence. Fears of imminent suicide attacks caused the closure of two centers in Beirut where gas canisters are filled. President Sleiman said recent rocket attacks from Syria in Lebanese border towns are attempts to draw Lebanon into the Syrian conflict, and urged all Syrian factions to refrain from targeting Lebanon.
