BEIRUT: Lebanon has arrested a former Syrian intelligence officer and several accomplices who allegedly planned attacks against the forces of Syria’s new government, a judicial official told AFP on Wednesday. The alleged leader of the network is a former Syrian army major general who is close to Bashar al-Assad and who, like the ousted longtime ruler, is now based in Moscow, the Lebanese official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Lebanese authorities detained “two Lebanese and three Syrians, one of them a former colonel in the (Syrian) intelligence services”, and seized “automatic weapons, hand grenades, sniper rifles and explosives” in their possession, the official said. The network’s members received “military training from Hezbollah fighters” in eastern Lebanon, the source added. In a statement, the Iran-backed group categorically denied having any link to a cell “seeking to destabilise security in Lebanon and Syria”. “Hezbollah has no connection, directly or indirectly, to any such cell or group,” the statement said, calling the allegation “entirely baseless”. Hezbollah was allied with Assad and fought alongside his government’s forces during Syria’s civil war, before the new authorities toppled him in December 2024. Initial investigations indicate that the accused “were planning to carry out operations against government forces on the Syrian coast”, the official said. The coastal region, heartland of the country’s Alawite minority to which the Assad family belongs, saw a bout of sectarian bloodshed in March last year. Syria and Lebanon have been trying to turn a new page in their relations since Assad’s ouster and the weakening of Hezbollah. Lebanese authorities last month extradited to Syria a former Assad-era general accused of crimes including murder and torture.