The Lebanese army arrested a Lebanese-Australian cleric with links to Al-Qaeda while a wanted man with Swedish nationality was killed in a police raid

The Lebanese army arrested a Lebanese-Australian cleric with links to Al-Qaeda while a wanted man with Swedish nationality was killed in a police raid, security officials said Sunday.

Tensions were high in the northern city of Tripoli following the army's arrest of Sheikh Hussam al-Sabbagh, who is considered one of the most dangerous men in the country and is wanted on terrorism charges.

Unknown assailants later tossed a hand grenade at an army checkpoint in Tripoli's al-Mankoubin area, the army said.

Known as Abu Hassan, Sabbagh holds Lebanese and Australian citizenships and is accused by authorities in both countries for “setting up an armed band and training terrorists", and of links to Al-Qaeda and radical group Fatah al-Islam.

Hours after Sabbagh’s arrest, police raided the Tripoli home of Munthir Hassan who is the main suspect behind terror cells in hotels in Beirut and the northern region of Fnaideq.

The wanted man was killed by a grenade he was handling during an Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau raid on his apartment in City Complex in Tripoli.

Police suspected Hassan of having provided explosive belts to two Saudi suicide bombers who blew themselves up when police raided their Beirut hotel on June 25, the source said.
  
Hassan was holed up in a Tripoli apartment and resisted arrest, lobbing grenades at police and exchanging fire with them for around four hours. "As security forces tried to enter the apartment, he was killed by one of the grenades he was handling," the source said, adding that two policemen were wounded. He said an explosive belt was found in the suspect's apartment.