(Updates throughout with news conference) BEIRUT, March 13 (Reuters) - Four Syrians held by the Lebanese authorities have confessed to bombing two buses in Lebanon last month, killing three people, Lebanon's interior minister said on Tuesday. Hassan al-Sabaa said the men were members of Fateh al-Islam, a small Palestinian group which he linked to Syrian intelligence. Fateh al-Islam broke away last year from Fateh al-Intifada, another Palestinian group. A fifth man, also Syrian, was on the run, Sabaa said. "It is no secret that Fateh al-Islam is Fateh al-Intifada and Fateh al-Intifada is part of the Syrian intelligence-security apparatus," Sabaa told reporters. Fateh al-Islam denied any link to the bus bombs in the Christian village of Ain Alaq. "If a man had been killed in the Amazon forest, Fateh al-Islam would have been accused of his murder," it said in a statement. The bombing on Feb.13 was a day before the second anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, whose killing many Lebanese blame on Syria. Damascus denies involvement. The bombing had been added to a list of attacks being investigated by a U.N. inquiry into the Hariri killing. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said the men had been instructed to carry out the attack before Feb. 14. "They said that their bosses had asked them to be ready to carry out another operation," Aridi said, adding that the target was to be an office of the Kataeb Party, a Christian faction which is part of the anti-Syrian governing coalition. Pierre Gemayel, a cabinet minister and Kataeb leader, was assassinated in November. Ain Alaq is in the area of Bikfaya, home to Gemayel's father and Kataeb leader, former President Amin Gemayel. Security sources said earlier that six members of Fateh al-Islam had confessed to the Ain Alaq bombs. Fateh al-Islam first emerged in the Palestinian refugee camp of Bedawi in north Lebanon. Governing coalition leaders said the Feb. 13 bombing was designed to deter their supporters from attending a Beirut rally to mark the Hariri killing and to bolster their camp against a political challenge by the opposition. The opposition includes Hezbollah and Amal, which are both close to Damascus.
