U.S. approves of Lebanon’s PM suspect killers arrest

The United States said on Tuesday that it welcomed Lebanon's action to arrest three former security chiefs over the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

"The Lebanese people deserve to know what happened" about the murder, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a news briefing.

"In trying to get to the bottom of it, these arrests, as well as these further questionings, are part of that effort. We welcome that effort," McCormack said.

Former general security chief Jamil al-Sayed, former military intelligence chief Raymond Azar and former internal security chief Ali al-Hage were arrested on Tuesday, according to Lebanese security sources.

The three officials, who all resigned amid public fury over the Hariri assassination, "will be interrogated as suspects," Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said in a statement read on television.

They are the first major arrests in the probe into Hariri's killing, which plunged Lebanon into turmoil and increased the pressure on Syria to pull out its troops in April, Xinhua says.

Besides, Mustafa Hamdan, head of the presidential guard, turned himself in to the office of a UN investigation team after the Lebanese authorities issued an arrest warrant against him.

The moves were seen as the first major development in the investigation into Hariri's killing.

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a massive bombing on Feb.

Pravda.ru reported earlisr, that Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said Tuesday that three former Lebanese security chiefs and the commander of the Presidential Guards are suspects in the U.N. investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.