According to al-Akhbar newspaper, the al-Qaida-linked group transported a huge amount of explosives into Lebanon to be used in the country.
The CIA warned Lebanese government a week before the blast that an al-Qaeda-affiliated organization planned a terror attack in the area.
Security and political sources told the newspaper that a CIA official in Lebanon provided the army intelligence and the ISF Intelligence Branch with “delicate information” regarding the matter.
The CIA report pointed out that the al-Qaida-linked-group prepared two bombs, each weigh 7 tons, to target buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs using suicide bombers.
The report said that the group is also active in Syria.
The report came as a car bomb explosion ripped through the Beirut’s southern suburb neighborhood of Bir al-Abed, a pro-Hezbollah area, wounded dozens of people.
Another report said that another al-Qaeda-linked group transported around 2,000 kilograms of explosives into Lebanon to target the Lebanese army, Hezbollah, Saudi and Kuwaiti ambassadors in addition to Russian and Chinese diplomats.
A third CIA report included detailed information on the head of an armed group that is responsible for firing rockets on the city of Baalbek.
He was reported to be a Syrian extremist who is leading the operations from the region of Damascus countryside.
The report also points out that this person is trying to get 500 missiles to be stored in an area which his group fires rockets from towards the city of Baalbek and its surroundings.
Al-Akhbar pointed out that the heads of the Lebanese security agencies didn't inform politicians of the matter but rather stressed on the importance of obtaining the full telecom data.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has condemned the attack, saying it was meant to foment unrest in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, a Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar issued a statement saying, “There is a clear fingerprint of Israel and its instruments in this dastardly deed.”
Former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri also blamed Israel for the “terrorist explosion” that rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, saying that the regime was trying to provoke Sunni-Shiite strife in Lebanon.
“[The blast] requires the highest level of awareness and vigilance in the face of dangers that surround the country and the entire region, especially while facing attempts by the Israeli enemy to push [Lebanon] to strife by organizing terrorist attacks, as happened today,” Hariri said.
The bomb attack was the second strike to hit southern Beirut this year.
In January, two people were injured after a bomb went off in the suburb of al-Selloum, south of Beirut. The bomb was planted underneath a car belonging to a member of the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah.
Back in May, two rockets hit the area. Lebanese security forces have also disarmed several rockets near Beirut in recent months.
In December 2012, a car bomb attack in the capital claimed the life of the intelligence chief of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, General Wissam al-Hassan.
SHI/BA