BEIRUT: Lebanon’s General Security agency said yesterday it had arrested three people on suspicion of planning bomb attacks and assassinations.
“General Security held three people of Syrian and Lebanese citizenship belonging to a terrorist network that was planning to carry out... security violations in Lebanon by using explosives and conducting assassinations,” the statement said.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said two of those arrested were Syrians and a third was Lebanese. An official at General Security declined to provide further details on the targets of the bombings and assassinations the men are accused of planning.
The three have been referred to the military prosecutor, the statement said. The arrests come after a string of massive car bombs, including two in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut and one in the northern city of Tripoli.
The August 23 attack in Tripoli, a twin car bombing, killed 45 people and was the deadliest such attack in Lebanon since its 1975-1990 civil war. The attacks in Beirut, which targeted neighbourhoods that are considered strongholds of the powerful Hezbollah movement, killed 27 people.
The blasts raised fears that violence in Lebanon could spiral out of control amid growing polarisation linked to the war in neighbouring Syria. Much of Lebanon’s Sunni community backs the Sunni-dominated uprising against Syria’s government, but Lebanese Shias, including Hezbollah, largely back the Syrian regime.
AFP
