Army Arrests Defected Syrian Officer in Riyaq, Arms Smuggler in al-Qaa

Four Syrian suspects were arrested Thursday by the army in separate operations in the Bekaa region.

“An army intelligence patrol raided an apartment inhabited by Syrians in the New Riyaq area and arrested three people, including defected officer A. M.,” state-run National News Agency reported.

It identified the other two suspects as Z. M. and M. M.

In a separate operation, army intelligence agents arrested Syrian fugitive Amer Saleh Amer in the Bekaa border area of Masharii al-Qaa near Syria's border, NNA said.

“He is wanted on arrest warrants related to smuggling arms across the border and fighting against the Lebanese army,” the agency added.

Dozens of Syrian suspects have been arrested in Lebanon since the eruption of the Syrian conflict in 2011, but the Lebanese army intensified its crackdown earlier this year following deadly clashes with extremist groups in the Bekaa border town of Arsal and the northern city of Tripoli.

Top Free Syrian Army official Abdullah al-Rifai, who is a defected colonel, was arrested several weeks ago by the army in Arsal's outskirts.

Around 11 days ago, the army arrested at one of its checkpoints an Iraqi woman identified as Saja al-Dulaimi, whom Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq identified as a divorcee of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the chief of the Islamic State group that has seized vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.

The army also arrested this week the Syrian wife of top al-Nusra Front official Anas Sharkas, according to NNA.

The IS and al-Nusra had in August abducted several Lebanese troops and policemen during deadly clashes with the army in and around the town of Arsal.

Around 27 servicemen remain in the custody of the two groups while three have been executed.

The detained women and the Syrians arrested in Lebanon in recent days could potentially serve as bargaining chips with the kidnappers.

Lebanese authorities have been under intense pressure from the families of the captured men to negotiate their release.

Y.R.