TRIPOLI/HERMEL: The Lebanese Army Saturday announced it made more arrests in the Bekaa Valley and the northern city of Tripoli, under the nationwide security plan to restore order to regions plagued by the crisis in Syria.
In the Bekaa, a wanted suspect identified as Ali Khodr Jaafar was apprehended in Al-Sharawneh neighborhood in the eastern city of Baalbek after the military tightened its cordon around the area and launched raids, a security source told The Daily Star.
Jaafar, described as a “dangerous suspect,” is wanted for several arrest warrants and is accused of killing Army soldiers in the Bekaa.
In a statement, the Army said Jaafar also known as Ali al-Shaer was linked to the kidnapping of Lebanese and Gulf citizens and was involved in the 2009 ambush that killed four officers.
He also took part in two separate attacks on security forces in Baalbek that lead to the killing of two officers, the statement said.
In the same neighborhood, the Army raided four houses belonging to suspects involved in abduction cases, car thefts and drug trading, with soldiers confiscating a number of stolen vehicles, the source said.
The military also raided the houses of Nouh Zeaiter and Mohammad Jaafar, wanted suspects as well.
The Internal Security Forces (ISF) Information Branch also raided several locations in the notorious neighborhood and confiscated four stolen vehicles.
The ISF said in a statement they detained a 46-year-old man in the Bekaa, wanted for several arrest warrants over his alleged role in a number of robberies, trading with counterfeit currency and shooting Army soldiers.
In the neighborhood of Maksa in Zahle, east Lebanon, the Army said it detained S.S. suspected of blocking a road in the town and harassing residents.
In the northeastern town of Arsal, the military detained a Syrian identified as Abdel-Nabi Roumieh suspected of belonging to a terrorist group, the Army said in a separate announcement.
The Army also said it arrested a man identified as A.F. in Tripoli’s Al-Hara al-Barraneye for shooting a person, committing robberies and lacking identification documents.
Security forces, led by the Lebanese Army, have begun implementing a security plan to restore law and order to the restive city of Tripoli and the Bekaa Valley.
The Army and ISF members erected checkpoints in several parts of the Bekaa and Tripoli, searching for suspects and inspecting vehicles. The military and the ISF Information Branch have also carried out raids in a number of locations and apprehended wanted individuals.
In the northern city of Tripoli, the military briefly detained Abdullatif Saleh, media officer for pro-Assad Arab Democratic Party, for making comments to a pan-Arab newspaper after the Army had warned him to refrain from doing so.
Saleh was previously detained last year for attacking the Army in a newspaper article.
Military Prosecutor Judge Saqr Saqr charged 11 suspects from the northern city of Tripoli, including Khaled Shaykho commander of an armed group in Bab al-Tabbaneh, with “forming an armed group with the aim of harming people, sabotaging the authority of the state, shooting security forces, inciting sectarian sentiments, damaging public and private property as well as killing and attempted killing.”
Earlier this week, the Internal Security Forces detained Shaykho in Bab al-Tabbaneh.
Shaykho is among a number of militia leaders who have been detained since the crackdown began on April 1 in Tripoli.
Tripoli has witnessed nearly twenty rounds of violence between the Sunni-dominated Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood and the Jabal Mohsen district, populated mostly by Alawites, leaving hundreds of casualties and scores wounded over the past three years.
Source: The Daily Star