MAJID aL-MAJID: AL QUADA LEBANON CHIEF DIES IN CUSTODY by Benson Agoha

* Majid al-Majid

Al-Qaeda's Chief in Lebanon, Majid al-Majid has died in custody, reports from Associated Press crediting the Lebanese Army, say.

Majid al-Majid, a Saudi national, was in a Beirut hospital when he died. He was al-Qaeda's commander in Lebanon.

He was arrested only recently in Lebanon, although he has been on Saudi Arabia's most-wanted-terrorists list for some time. He was the leader of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades.

According to the Associated Press, al-Majid was an al-Qaida-linked group leader that carried out attacks across the Middle East before shifting its focus to Syria's civil war.

A short statement from the Lebanese army said Majid al-Majid "died this morning while undergoing treatment at the central military hospital after his health deteriorated."

An army general told Associated Press the militant died of kidney failure. He was one of the "85 most-wanted individuals in his native Saudi Arabia.", Associated Press reported.

Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for attacks across the Middle East including a bomb attack on Iran's Beirut embassy in November that killed 23 people.

Report from Kenya Kenya's `Standard Digital' say the Lebanese Defence Minister, Fayez Ghosn earlier confirmed Majid al-Majid was being held by army intelligence in Beirut and was "being interrogated in secret". He refused to say when and how the arrest took place.

But Associated Press said according to Lebanese newspapers, al-Majid was detained during the last week of December while on his way from Beirut to the eastern Bekaa Valley that borders Syria.

"The reports said that he was captured while in an ambulance after he had undergone dialysis at a hospital in Beirut", associated press said.

* Twitter: @bensonagoha.

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