Report: Army Informed of Plot to Sabotage Ashoura Gatherings

The army command received information that terrorist are plotting to attack Ashoura gatherings through explosive-rigged cars and female suicide bombers.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Tuesday, the army detained Khadija Hmeid, one of the female bombers who were trained to drive booby-trapped cars and crash Ashoura gatherings.

A security source told the daily that security forces are searching for several vehicles that were loaded with explosives.

Hizbullah and AMAL movement began implementing maximum security measures on Saturday, the first day of Ashoura, to ensure the safety of mourners commemorating the occasion.

Ashoura marks the death of Imam Hussein over 1,300 years ago.

Millions of Shiites around the world mark Ashoura, which this year climaxes on November 3, by setting up procession tents.

Hizbullah has sent fighters to Syria to back President Bashar Assad's forces against rebels trying to remove him from power. The armed intervention in Syria earned the Shiite group the enmity of Syria's predominantly Sunni rebels. Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Over the past year, Syrian troops and Hizbullah fighters have captured most of the towns and villages in Syria's mountainous Qalamun region along the Lebanon border, depriving the rebels of residential areas where they can stay during the winter.

Hizbullah fighters have also clashed with jihadists, who infiltrated Lebanese territories.

Al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front recently attacked positions manned by Hizbullah on the outskirts of Brital, killing several of its fighters.

There have been reports of other skirmishes between Hizbullah and militants along the Lebanon-Syria border.

H.K.

G.K.