Al-Jadeed staff threatened after attack

Kerma Khayat, deputy director of editing in al-Jadeed TV, and daughter of the station's owner Tahsin Khayat, received a threatening phone call on Wednesday that also denied the Resistance Brigades-linked Wissam Aladdin was involved in the attack that targeted the station's headquarters on Monday, security sources said. The sources revealed that that Kerma received a call from a local mobile number. The caller said "If al-Jadeed doesn't stand aside from the case, your life and your dad's life would be worth one bullet." The channel's news director, Mariam al-Bassam received a similar call threatening to kill her and all members of her family "if Wissam is not released". The TV station's officials informed the police about the calls. Wissam Aladdin, who was arrested after setting tyres ablaze outside the station’s headquarters, is connected to the Hezbollah-linked Resistance Brigades and was part of a group planning another attack on a Future TV television station, security sources told several newspapers on Wednesday. The preliminary investigation revealed that  Aladdin was tasked with burning tyres and then throwing a Molotov cocktail on the al-Jadeed headquarters in Beirut’s Wata al-Msaitbe area to set it ablaze on Monday night. But the suspect failed after his pants caught fire and was arrested by members of the Progressive Socialist Party who were in the area. He was then handed over to security forces. A Hezbollah official in Beirut, Abu Ali Kahlouni, visited Aladdin on Tuesday at the Beirut state hospital where he is being treated for his burn injuries. Aladdin reportedly admitted belonging to the Resistance Brigades and wanting to set the al-Jadeed headquarters on fire after the station on Sunday interviewed the imam of Sidon's Bilal bin Rabah mosque, the Salafist cleric Ahmed al-Assir who launched a scathing attack on the Amal movement and Hezbollah.