Future bloc MP Ahmad Fatfat told CNN on Monday that slain Internal Security Forces intelligence chief Wissam al-Hassan was on his way to meet with Future bloc MP Ammar Houri to discuss a recent threat allegedly linked to Syria when he was assassinated on Friday in Beirut’s Ashrafieh. According to Fatfat, the blast which went off killing Hassan and two others and injured 126 went off half an hour before the scheduled meeting with Houri. Fatfat added that the meeting was to discuss “a threatening text message sent to [Houri] from a Syrian phone number.”
“Similar threats had been sent via text message to three other lawmakers, including me, although they did not realize it until after Hassan’s assassination,” Fatfat said. After Hassan’s assassination, Fatfat said he and his colleagues “received another text from a similar phone number threatening further killings: ‘Congratulations, the countdown has started,’ the text read. ‘One of ten.’” [Link]