Suicide Attackers to Target Army as Lebanese Fighters Return to Carry Out Terror Scheme

The army will reportedly be targeted by terrorist cells that belong to the al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front as 32 Lebanese nationals are set to carry out suicide attacks across the country.

The military boosted its measures and deployed heavily to avert a terrorist scheme that aims at spreading chaos in Lebanon, As Safir newspaper reported on Monday.

The daily said that the suicide attackers are carrying explosive belts and have been ordered by the emir of al-Nusra Front in Qalamoun, Abu Malik al-Talli, to detonate themselves directly if their hiding places were raided by the army.

Meanwhile, al-Akhbar newspaper reported that 32 Lebanese nationals are preparing to carry out terrorist attacks on Lebanese territories as security agencies are pursuing around 200 suspects linked to al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State group.

Sources told the daily that security agencies obtained information about the recruitment of a group of Lebanese suicide attackers from several areas, in particular from the northern city of Tripoli and the coastal city of Sidon.

The sources pointed out that the training of any suicide attacker requires a month and they are under the supervision of explosive experts.

The daily said that a Lebanese national, who was identified by his intials Aa. S. and known by Abou al-Farouq, is the general supervisor of the Lebanese fighters.

The terrorists aim at targeting “Shiites and Nusayris,” the report added.

The newspaper said that around 200 Lebanese linked to the IS are suspected of returning to the country to carry out security attacks.

The daily obtained information from jihadists linked to al-Nusra Front that “some fighters returned to Lebanon with orders to carry out attacks, while others fled the battle between the Front and the IS.”

“Those who will carry out attacks in Lebanon will remain dormant until they are ordered to reveal themselves.”

On Sunday, al-Nusra Front threatened the residents of Tripoli's Jabal Mohsen and Hizbullah with new attacks, a day after it claimed responsibility for a twin suicide bombing that killed nine and wounded more than 37 others in the Tripoli neighborhood.

Two suicide bombers who hail from Tripoli carried out Saturday's attack on a packed cafe in Jabal Mohsen, a Lebanese district that is largely loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Front said the operation was in retaliation to “the attack by Jabal Mohsen's Nusayris (Alawites) on the mosques of the Sunni community in Tripoli.”

H.K.

G.K.