ISF Denies Interrogated Member Has Ties to Naim Abbas
A rumor was circulated Wednesday afternoon about an alleged arrest of an Internal Security Forces member who is part of the Center House's guard platoon over ties to detained top Qaida-linked militant Naim Abbas.
Al-Jadeed television identified the man as H. A., saying he is a member of the guard platoon of the Center House, the headquarters of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri in downtown Beirut.
Al-Jadeed said Abbas has confessed that the ISF member was one of his close associates.
Meanwhile, NBN TV also said that the man belonged to the Center House's security team and the premiership’s guard squad, adding that he hails from the southern town of Kfar Hamam.
But state-run National News Agency later denied “reports circulated by some media outlets about the army intelligence's arrest of ISF Sergeant H. A., who is a guard at the Center House.”
“Security forces interrogated the sergeant and it turned out that he has nothing to do with any terrorist act,” NNA added.
For its part, the ISF issued a statement later on Wednesday, in which it categorically denied the presence of “any ties whatsoever between the aforementioned member and Naim Abbas.”
“He is not also involved in any other case,” the ISF added.
"The publishing of this type of reports in such a hasty manner is an irresponsible journalistic behavior that insults the dignity of this esteemed institution," the ISF said.
It stressed that it "will not hesitate to arrest security violators wherever they may be, without any reluctance and with ultimate transparency."
The ISF urged media outlets to resort to its public relations department for any news pertaining to its officers and members “to preserve their credibility on the one hand and the dignity of the ISF institution on the other hand.”
Only a few hours after Abbas made his confessions, the army started raiding arms depots in the al-Dibbiyeh and al-Saadiyat areas, where it seized explosives, rockets and fake IDs. Earlier on Wednesday, the army defused two booby-trapped cars in the Beirut area of Corniche al-Mazraa and the Bekaa area of al-Labweh.
Abbas, a Palestinian leader in the Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades, has been described as the group's number two man in Lebanon.
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