Extremist Network in Advanced Plotting Stage
Security sources have said that the 10-member terrorist network recently arrested by the Lebanese army was in an advanced stage in its plans to attack several targets, including UNIFIL and the military itself.
The sources told As Safir newspaper that the network was planning to attack the army to avenge its assault on militants in Nahr al-Bared camp in 2007.
Beirut media said Wednesday that the ringleader of the arrested group is a Syrian national and was found with six forged passports. The man reportedly traveled to six Arab countries in 15 days.
Other members of the network had Saudi, Kuwaiti, Syrian, Yemeni and Palestinian nationalities and one of them had a Greek passport.
The army said Tuesday that it has arrested the extremist network that was planning to carry out attacks against U.N. troops and smuggle wanted terrorists out of the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh.
"Our investigation has shown that this network was planning to smuggle wanted terrorists out of Ain el-Hilweh … smuggle Fatah al-Islam fighters into Ain el-Hilweh, to carry out attacks from Lebanon on targets abroad and create terrorist cells to monitor UNIFIL and the army in order to carry out terrorist attacks on them," an army communiqué said.
High-level security sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that investigation revealed the ten members” connection to Osama al-Shahabi, a wanted terrorist, who is holed up in Ain el-Hilweh.
A security source also told al-Liwaa daily that the network intended to smuggle fighters out of Lebanon to Iraq and Afghanistan. He also didn”t rule out attempts to carry out assassinations in Lebanon.
Furthermore, trustworthy sources told the newspaper that the son of Fatah al-Islam leader Abdel Rahim Awad has been arrested.