Suspicious Car Seized in Akkar after Entering from Syria

A suspicious car that had entered Lebanon from Syria was seized Sunday in the northern region of Akkar, state-run National News Agency reported.

“Agents from the State Security department of Akkar's Qobaiyat seized a white Honda SUV that was hidden in the village of al-Nsoub in the Jabal Akroum region,” NNA said.

“Following investigations, it turned out that it has no registration papers and was brought from Syrian into Arsal around five months ago,” the agency added.

It said the car carrying no license plates was handed over to the Qobaiyat police station for further investigations.

The brutal Syrian war has heavily spilled over into Lebanon in the past two years and extremist groups have targeted areas considered sympathetic to Hizbullah with several car bomb attacks.

The jihadist militants said the blasts that killed mostly civilians were in response to the group's military intervention in the neighboring country.

On June 30, three booby-trapped cars were discovered in Syria's Qalamun plains on the border with Lebanon, among them two with Lebanese license plates, according to Syria's state TV.

According to media reports, car theft gangs operating in Lebanon had been behind sending several stolen vehicles via illegal border crossings into Syria, where they would be rigged with explosives and sent back to Lebanon.

Y.R.