Court issues indictments in 2005 Hariri assassination

BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 30 (UPI) -- A U.N.-backed court has issued indictments for the arrest of four Hezbollah members in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

A court examining the bomb blast that killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut in February 2005, identified the suspects as Mustafa Badreddine, Salim al-Ayyash, Hasan Aineysseh and Asad Sabra.

The Daily Star in Beirut said Thursday Hezbollah denied any involvement in the incident and called the accusations an "Israeli-American project." Hariri was killed when a massive truck bomb exploded as his motorcade passed by.

Badreddine is closely related to slain Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Syria in 2008. He eventually replaced Mughniyeh as Hezbollah's chief operations officer.

The Lebanese portion of the indictment said Badreddine masterminded and supervised the Hariri assassination. The indictment said Ayyash headed the cell that carried out the assassination.

Hezbollah said the U.N. international court is a tool of the United States and Israel and it wants Lebanon to stop cooperating with the court, including the withdrawal of all Lebanese judges and an end to funding, Haaretz reported.

Lebanon has 30 days to serve the arrest warrants.