BEIRUT: Lebanon’s interior minister said Internal Security Forces (ISF) in June 2017 arrested Abu Jaafar Al-Iraqi, a Daesh leader, preventing terrorist attacks during the Christmas holidays.
Nohad Machnouk visited the ISF directorate on Friday and was accompanied by Gen. Emad Othman, the directorate’s director-general, to congratulate its leadership on the “extraordinary efforts in carrying out that exceptional security operation.”
The minister held a press conference, during which a documentary about the operation and its implications was featured.
Al-Iraqi, who was living secretly in Lebanon, “was forced to work” for the ISF “for five months without Daesh’s leadership knowing of his arrest,” said Machnouk.
“A volunteer source was contacted to call him on a daily basis, and rented a highly monitored house for him in the mountains,” he added.
“The result was the disclosure of all terrorist attacks that were to be carried out during the past five months.”
Al-Iraqi said Daesh could not carry out any attacks in Lebanon due to the state’s military and security measures.
Machnouk said: “The security operation was named Safe Lebanon to assure the Lebanese people as well as Arabs that Lebanon’s security was managed in a highly professional manner.”
