Jacques Chirac believed that the FARL was responsible due to the prison sentencing of its member Georges Ibrahim Abdallah at the time. However others, including Syria, claimed it was linked to the Iran–Iraq War, and it was later found out that the links between the CSPPA and the FARL were pretty weak, and that the main entity behind the group was Iran. Iran's involvement led to some to describe the attacks as having a dimension of Shia Islamic terrorism. Investigations of the hijackers of TWA Flight 847 and Air Afrique Flight 56 were among the factors that helped lead investigators towards Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia, and the cell behind the attacks. In early 1987, following the arrest of Mohammed Ali Hammadi in West Germany, the DST identified Fouad Ali Saleh as the leader of a group of eighteen terrorists directed by Hezbollah from Beirut as being behind all the attacks. Previously, several other groups had been speculated to have been behind the attacks or falsely claimed responsibility. Saleh's group was in addition to Tunisians connected to Lebanese Hezbollah operatives responsible for mass-casualty bombings including the bombing of the United States embassy in Beirut and the Beirut barracks bombings in 1983.