An Islamist militant group have issued an apology for a twin suicide bombing Lebanon that killed eight people, including children from a nearby orphanage.
The Al Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades issued the rare statement on various militant websites, saying the bombings were due to a “technical fault”. It said the bombings were actually directed at an Iranian cultural centre in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
The Daily Telegraph report that the statement read: “We affirm, always to our suicide bombers, to be cautious, and to abort any operation if they believe it will hit others but the targeted.”
It adds: “The two bombs were meant to be in a place where the shrapnel of the explosion would not reach the main road.
“The Azzam operations do not target Shiites in general, nor other sects.”
Such an apology is extremely rare for an Al Qaeda group.
They have in the past celebrated high civilian death tolls, justifying them by saying the civilians are heretics or implying they are secretly enemy fighters.
Others have justified killing innocent people by saying they will still be rewarded in Paradise.
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