A fugitive detonated an explosive belt early Saturday during a north Lebanon army raid, killing himself and three members of his family, and wounding at least eight others, a security source and medics said.
Mohammad Hamze, wanted for allegedly belonging to an extremist group and participating in battles against the army, tossed a grenade at soldiers who raided his sister's home where he was staying in the town of Deir Ammar, leading to an exchange of fire, the source said.
He was soon trapped inside a room where he blew himself up using an explosive belt made of four bombs, killing himself, his wife, mother and niece.
A photo from the blast site appears to show Hamze's corpse with his stomach blown out, missing an arm and a leg.
The eight wounded included seven soldiers and one of the suicide bomber's sister, Safaa, who lived in the apartment with her husband.
Television footage showed Safaa apearing in shock as she was interviewed from her hospital bed, denying she had any knowledge of her brother's alleged ties to extremists.
"I don't know what happened, I opened the door and suddenly I didn't see anything," Safaa Hamze told MTV, recalling the early morning knock on her door by soldiers.
"I had no idea about the rumors the media are saying," she added.
She said her brother came to her apartment Friday and had lunch, describing him as a "normal, joyful person."
"I was surprised when the military told me my brother belonged" to an armed group, she said.
A man who lives in the same building said the army had cordoned off the area and demanded Hamze surrender.
"But he refused and tossed a grenade that didn't explode, prompting soldiers to open fire... he soon blew himself up," he told MTV.
The security source said Hamze was linked to the group that was headed by notorious Islamist militant Osama Mansour, who was killed in April.
Mansour, who was close to Lebanon's top Islamist fugitive Shadi Mawlawi, was wanted for plotting several attacks against the army in Tripoli. He also took part in clashes between the Tripoli neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.
Mansour and Mawlawi, who remains at large, are believed to have links with Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.
In a statement, the Lebanese Army said: "As a military unit raided the house of Mohammad Mustafa Hamze in Deir Ammar, the latter tossed two hand grenades at soldiers, one of them failed to explode, prompting him to detonate himself using an explosive belt, killing himself and two other family members and wounding others."
The statement said that seven soldiers, including two officers, were slightly wounded in the attack.
It added that Hamze is wanted for opening fire at two army patrols in the Mankoubine neighborhood of Tripoli and participating within an armed group in September 2014 in opening fire at an army checkpoint in Beddawi area, where a soldier was killed. Hamze had also been charged with opening fire at Lebanese citizens.
The statement said that several Lebanese and Syrians were detained in the aftermath of the raid and the Military Police was handling the investigation.
The raid comes more than three weeks after security forces launched a widespread crackdown on suspected militants following the double suicide attack targeting the southern Beirut suburb of Burj al-Barajneh.
More than 20 people have been arrested and 300 kilos of explosives seized in the days following the Nov. 12 attack, which killed 47 and wounded more than 200. Most of the operations were carried out in the north Lebanon city of Tripoli.
