Two IS Militants who Plotted Attacks in Lebanon Arrested

Security forces announced Monday the arrest of two Islamic State jihadists who had plotted to carry out attacks inside Lebanon.

“The fugitive Jihad Ahmed al-Ghazi was arrested by the Intelligence Directorate in the North over his ties to terrorist groups led by the fugitives Mohammed Ahmed al-Satem, Oday Ahmed al-Moussa and others who move between Lebanon and Syria,” the army said in a statement.

“They tried to help him enter Syria to fight alongside the terrorist groups there,” it added.

The detainee confessed that under al-Satem's leadership, small groups were formed in the northern region of Wadi Khaled with the aim of targeting the Lebanese army.

They sought to “attack troops and create an appropriate atmosphere for the entry of the IS group into Lebanon through setting up a security zone connected to Khirbet Daoud in order to seize control of Wadi Khaled,” the army statement said.

The IS cells “purchased weapons and prepared a number of caves to be launchpads for their operations,” it added.

Among the arms they bought was a “mortar cannon aimed at targeting the army barracks in Wadi Khaled.”

The detainee al-Ghazi also confessed that he was tasked with “carrying out a suicide bombing in Tripoli or Beirut.”

“Along with Tareq Mohammed Obeid, they tried to enter into Arsal and then into its outskirts with the aim of joining IS militants there,” the army added.

Meanwhile, the General Security announced the arrest of the Syrian M. M. on charges of “involvement in terrorist activities, belonging to the terrorist IS group, and recruiting militants to be sent to Syria to fight alongside the group.”

“He also confessed to preparing to set up armed cells to carry out acts of sabotage in Lebanon in coordination with a Lebanese IS official in (Syria's) Raqa,” a General Security statement said.

The man also took part in “overseeing and coordinating the moves of the militants in the latest Tripoli battles against the Lebanese army, in addition to harboring terrorists fleeing the aforementioned clashes.”

On Thursday, the army reportedly arrested four IS suspects after intercepting their van on the Zalka-Beirut highway.

Dozens of suspects were arrested across the country in recent weeks.

The massive crackdown followed an IS suicide bombing in the southern Beirut suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh that killed 44 people and wounded around 240 others.

Y.R.