A Lebanese man was arrested on Friday in North Lebanon for killing his sister earlier this week in what authorities described as an “honor killing,” – in which male relatives kill female kin they suspect of illicit behavior with men – a security official said on Friday.

"The 24-year-old victim was single and apparently had a boyfriend," the security official told AFP. "[Her 28-year-old brother] admitted shooting her twice in the head to cleanse the family honor."

Her body was discovered on Tuesday on the main road of the village of Hakr al-Daheri, in the northern Akkar region.

"This kind of crime is not common in Lebanon, but we have a few every year," the official said. Lebanese law stipulates extenuating circumstances for so-called honor killings.

In 2007, Lebanon's top Shia Muslim cleric Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah issued a fatwa, or religious edict, banning honor killings as repulsive acts that contradict Islamic law.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon