Report: Army Intelligence Arrested Fatah al-Islam Militants

The Lebanese Army Intelligence has reportedly arrested two men for belonging to Fatah al-Islam terrorist group, one of them a militant who receives direct orders from the network's leader Osama al-Shehabi.

High-ranking security sources told al-Joumhouria daily published Wednesday that Khalil Ahmed al-Boubou, who was jailed for five years after a 2006 attack on the Lebanese army at the Fakhreddine Barracks, was recently seized for helping an Algerian Fatah al-Islam militant escape Roumieh prison.

The Algerian man identified as Faisal al-Aqli and known as Abou Shouaib escaped Roumieh to join the rebels fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Al-Boubou admitted to receiving direct orders from al-Shehabi, who was named Fatah al-Islam leader after the Lebanese army killed the terrorist group's former head Abdul Rahman Awad in an ambush in the eastern town of Chtaura last year, the sources told al-Joumhouria.

The seized man told the Army Intelligence that al-Shehabi oversaw the assassination attempt of Palestinian Armed Struggle chief Mahmoud Issa, who goes by the nom de guerre of al-Lino, at the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, the sources said.

They told the newspaper that another man identified as Ali Hajer and known as Abou Jaafar was also arrested for belonging to Fatah al-Islam and helping Islamists cross to Syria to fight the Syrian regime.