Report: Extremist Groups Planning Attack on Prisons to Facilitate Jail Break by Islamists
Extremist networks are plotting to attack several Lebanese prisons to facilitate a jail break by Islamist inmates, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday.
According to the newspaper, the army command warned the Internal Security Forces from a mass break out from several prison facilities in Lebanon.
Roumieh, the oldest and largest of Lebanon's overcrowded prisons, has witnessed sporadic prison breaks in recent years and escalating riots over the past months as inmates living in poor conditions demand better treatment.
There are around 190 Fatah al-Islam prisoners at the prison's bloc B.
The trial of a number of Islamist detainees held over the Nahr al-Bared clashes kicked off in September.
The Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon was almost totally destroyed during a months-long conflict between the Lebanese army and the al-Qaida-inspired group Fatah al-Islam in 2007.
The fighting killed some 400 people, including 168 soldiers. Some Islamist leaders escaped despite the army siege of the camp.
The inmates were arrested on charges of fighting or aiding the Fatah al-Islam fighters in Nahr al-Bared that lies near the northern coastal city of Tripoli.
Several of them have escaped from Roumieh in daring prison breaks.
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