ISF Closes in on ‘Kidnapping Network’ but Conditions of Estonians’ Release Remains Mystery

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel confirmed that two peopled killed by the Internal Security Forces Information Branch in the Bekaa valley on Tuesday were members of a network seeking to kidnap foreigners.

In remarks to al-Joumhouria newspaper published Wednesday, Charbel said the two men were dangerous outlaws that had previously escaped from several ISF operations carried out against them and had killed an ISF Intelligence Branch officer in the Bekaa town of Majdal Anjar several months ago.

The men were also key members of the cell that plotted to kidnap seven Estonians in March. The cyclists were released in July by allegedly a French intelligence team without the knowledge of Lebanese authorities.

They were killed in a dawn shootout that followed an ambush by members of the Information Branch in the town of al-Bireh on the outskirts of Rashaya in Western Bekaa.

A high-ranking security source told al-Liwaa newspaper that the ISF hit the nerve of the network and has made major progress in eliminating the group after it arrested 10 of its members and killed three of them.

The source admitted that a ransom was paid to secure the release of the Estonians, saying that the head of the Estonian police who visited Lebanon last month refused to unveil the identity of the party that mediated to win the release of the tourists in return for a huge sum of money.

Charbel and the source also confirmed that two Lebanese officers had been dispatched to Estonia to find out the conditions that secured the release of the Estonians but did not reach any conclusion.