Lebanese security forces have arrested nine people, most of them Syrian nationals, over last week's twin bombings in Beirut that killed 44 people, the interior minister said.<br />"Until now the detained include seven Syrians and two Lebanese, one of them a (would-be) suicide bomber and the other a trafficker who smuggled them across the border from Syria," interior minister Nuhad Mashnuq said in a televised press conference.<br /><br />The bombings in a busy residential and commercial area that is a stronghold for Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) militant group, which has also claimed the coordinated Paris attacks.<br /><br />"The whole suicide bombing network and its supporters were arrested in the 48 hours following the explosion," Mr Mashnuq said.<br /><br />The explosions were the first attacks in more than a year to target a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon, as the Iran-backed group steps up its involvement in the war in neighbouring Syria.
