'Terrorist' Group Members Held in Baalbek as Crackdown on Syrians Continues
The army on Tuesday arrested three Syrians who belong to a terrorist group in the Bekaa region of Baalbek, pressing on with a crackdown that started in the wake of the deadly Arsal clashes with jihadist militants.
“Army intelligence agents apprehended three Syrian members of an armed terrorist group near Iaat's intersection on the international highway” of Baalbek, state-run National News Agency reported.
They were taken to interrogation along with the car's driver, the agency added, without naming the terrorist group.
Earlier in the day, the army had staged “a series of raids on Syrian refugee gatherings and places of residence in the Akkar towns of Akroum, Mashta Hassan and Mashta Hammoud,” according to NNA.
Several people were arrested in the operation.
Later on Tuesday, Syrian national Ayyoub B. Gh., 26, was arrested at an army checkpoint in Akkar's al-Abboudiyeh “while carrying a hand grenade in his bag,” NNA reported.
Al-Jadeed TV, meanwhile, said the army arrested a number of Syrians in Alman, north of Sidon, noting that “they included a man accused of recruiting new members for a terrorist group.”
On Monday, security forces arrested more than 25 Syrians during raids on refugee gatherings in the northern Koura district and the Northern Metn area of Dekwaneh.
Dozens of Syrians were also detained last week.
There has been growing resentment in Lebanon against Syrian refugees after militants from the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front abducted in August a number of troops and policemen from the Bekaa town of Arsal during fierce clashes with the Lebanese army.
The anger escalated after IS jihadists beheaded two captive army troops.
Hosting more than 1.1 million Syrians fleeing their country's three-year war, Lebanon is home to the highest number of Syrian refugees in the region, and also to the highest refugee population per capita in the world.
Y.R.
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