"I support the bombings in Beirut. The leader of Hezbollah (Hassan Nasrallah) sent fighters to Syria to back the regime. He is responsible for those killed in Lebanon," Abu Qatada, also known as Omar Mahmoud Osman, told reporters at the state security court in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

"If Lebanon wants to protect itself, it should tell the party of the devil to get its fighters out of Syria," said the notorious Takfiri terrorist, referring to the anti-Israeli resistance movement in Lebanon.

Since July, 10 terrorist bombings have struck Lebanon, six of them involving suicide bombers.

They have been claimed by various al-Qaeda-linked and foreign-backed Takfiri terrorist groups based in Lebanon and neighboring Syria, including Al-Nusra Front, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades and the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIL).

The terrorist and insurgency groups claim they are targeting Lebanon's Hezbollah for aiding the Syrian government forces in saving the country from the foreign-sponsored militants aiming to overthrow the Damascus government.

British authorities expelled Abu Qatada last summer after Amman and London ratified a treaty guaranteeing that evidence obtained by torture would not be used in his retrial and that the proceedings would be transparent.

In 1999, the Palestinian-born preacher was sentenced to death in absentia for conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks, including on the American School in Amman.

The sentence was immediately commuted to life imprisonment with hard labor.

A year later, Abu Qatada was sentenced in absentia to 15 years for plotting to attack tourists in Jordan during its millennium celebrations.

He is being retried in both the 1999 and 2000 cases and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

If convicted, he could face a minimum of 15 years' hard labor.

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