BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities have arrested a man suspected of being a key operative in an Al-Qaeda-inspired militant group, an army spokesman said on Friday. “We arrested a big fish in a raid in Beirut late on Thursday, and that’s all I can say,” the spokesman told AFP asking not to be identified. Lebanese media reported that the man arrested was suspected of being a leading figure in the Fatah al-Islam group and of plotting future attacks.
A security official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the man was a Palestinian from one of Lebanon’s 12 refugee camps.
“The suspect was on the state’s wanted list and is a member of Fatah al-Islam,” the Arabic-language daily An-Nahar said. It added that the suspect had been implicated in previous attacks.
Newspapers said the army had seized equipment during the raid on a home in Beirut.
In 2007, fought fierce battles with the Lebanese army at the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
The fighting killed 400 people, including 168 soldiers, and displaced some 30,000 refugees from the camp, which was leveled in the fighting.
Fatah al-Islam has also been linked to deadly bombings targeting UN peacekeepers in the south and civilian buses.
By longstanding convention, the army does not enter Lebanon’s impoverished refugee camps. – AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment