BEIRUT: Lebanon thwarted militant plans to attack places of worship and government buildings over the holidays after gaining rare access to a Daesh operative, the interior minister said Friday.
Nohad Machnouk said at a press conference that an elite unit in Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF) had arrested an Iraqi Daesh commander in Beirut last June.
The commander, known as Abu Jaafar Al-Iraqi, had been tasked by the Daesh leadership to establish an Daesh network in Lebanon, according to information presented at the briefing.
This network would not only carry out attacks in Lebanon, but could have potentially hosted top Daesh officials fleeing Iraq and Syria.
Full details of the operation and the current whereabouts of Abu Jaafar were not revealed.
But Mashnuq said that for five months after the Iraqi commander’s arrest the ISF kept tabs on him through a mysterious “volunteer,” who had gained his trust and rented a home for him that was bugged by Lebanese authorities.
“This is one of those rare operations where you have someone this important in the terrorist organization, and you’re able to use him for five months to find out about the plans supposed to happen during the holidays, against places of worship and government buildings,” Mashnuq told reporters.
“The nature of this operation, as we explained, is unprecedented in the Arab world,” he claimed.
Daesh’s now-defunct “caliphate” spread across swathes of Iraq and Syria but never officially included territory inside Lebanon.
Militants from Daesh were entrenched along the Lebanese-Syrian border for several years however and claimed several deadly attacks in Lebanon.
According to a film shown at Friday’s briefing, Lebanese authorities had worked since the end of 2016 to lure Abu Jaafar to Lebanon with the help of Arab and international authorities.
An intermediary, trained in Turkey and cooperating with the ISF, rented out an apartment for Abu Jaafar that was being surveilled and met with him there several times.
Audio and video clips from the apartment were aired during the press conference.
Abu Jaafar allegedly asked Daesh leaders in Iraq and Syria for help in planning attacks on New Year’s Eve in Lebanon, and they said they may be able to provide suicide belts and automatic weapons.
He was ultimately unable to pull together an operation, the clip said.
The film mentioned one Lebanese Daesh member who had been arrested as part of the year-long operation. The minister did not mention any other arrests nor did he elaborate on the intelligence gained.
Lebanon says foiled Daesh holiday attacks using informant
Lebanon says foiled Daesh holiday attacks using informant
Syria says detained senior Daesh jihadist in Damascus
- The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers
DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have arrested a senior Daesh group official in the Damascus region in a joint operation with a US-led international coalition, a security official said on Wednesday.
Taha Al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tabiya, an Daesh leader in Damascus, was detained with several of his men, General Ahmad Al-Dalati was reported as saying by state news agency SANA.
The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and a US civilian that Washington said was carried out by a lone Daesh gunman in central Syria’s Palmyra.
“Our specialized units, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Directorate and and International Coalition forces, carried out a precise security operation targeting” an Daesh hideout, Dalati said.
On December 20, a Syria monitor said that five Daesh members were killed in US strikes in retaliation for the December 13 attack.
It was the first such incident since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a security forces member who was due to be fired for his “extremist Islamist ideas.”
