Army Arrests Suspects, Seizes Arms during Tripoli Raids

The Lebanese army on Monday arrested two suspects and seized weapons during raids in several neighborhoods of the northern city of Tripoli as part of a security plan aimed at bringing stability to the country.

The military said in a communique that soldiers raided two arms depot in the impoverished neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen and the area of al-Baraniyeh.

Soldiers also arrested Ammar Ali Abdul Rahman, who is the head of armed groups in Jabal Mohsen and al-Rifa, and the person in charge of al-Baraniyeh hotspot, Jalal Hassan Hajji, the communique said.

It added that the army was pursuing other suspects to bring them to justice.

Later on Monday, MTV said "the investigation department of the North arrested Khaled Sheikho, a leader of one of Bab al-Tabbaneh's fighting frontiers, in the Koura area of Deddeh."

LBCI television said Sheikho is also a guard at the office of Mustaqbal bloc MP Samir al-Jisr in Tripoli.

The latest developments came as President Michel Suleiman chaired a meeting of security officials at Baabda Palace. Prime Minister Tammam Salam attended the talks.

The state-run National News Agency said the conferees discussed the plan approved by the government last week to impose law and order in Tripoli and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The implementation of the plan started in Tripoli and is being activated in the northern areas of the Bekaa.

The unprecedented operation of the armed forces to quell violence between the Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen and the nearby Sunni district of Bab al-Tebbaneh in Tripoli came after tensions between them were exacerbated by the war in neighboring Syria.

Alawite President Bashar Assad is facing a Sunni-dominated uprising since March 2011.

Successive rounds of violence between the neighborhoods have killed dozens of people and brought parts of Tripoli to a standstill.

As for the Bekaa, it has witnessed Sunni-Shiite tension linked to Syria's war and car thefts in addition to abductions in return for ransom.

G.K./Y.R.

D.A.