Lebanese General Security Dismantles Tripoli Terror Network

Local Editor

General Security has busted a terror network run by notorious militant Shadi Mawlawi that was planning to target Lebanese Army posts in the northern city of Tripoli, as-Safir newspaper reported Saturday.

The daily said in a report that General Security successfully detained one of the network's members, who was set to target an Army Intelligence post in Tripoli's Mutran Street. The suspect was also seeking to create sedition between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, which are known for the sporadic violence that erupts between them.

The report said that General Security managed to detain Aa.K. after six months of surveillance. The suspect was arrested at the Beirut airport as he tried to leave the country.

The suspect is believed to have direct links with Mawlawi and Abu Malek al-Talleh, the Nusra Front's commander for the Qalamoun region.

He confessed to recruiting youth not more than 20 years old to train them to target military posts upon Mawalwi and Talleh's orders.

He also told interrogators he recruited a man identified as Aa.T., who was ordered to conduct a suicide attack against the Army Intelligence's post in Tripoli, but the bomber remained hesitant to comply with the command.

The main suspect, Aa.K., also revealed that he managed to recruit dozens of members who joined the Nusra Front in Qalamoun and the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal.

He was later referred to the military intelligence headquarters in the north.

The daily said that Army intelligence succeeded in detaining Aa.T. few days ago, adding that he is less than 20 years old.

He admitted that Aa.K. recruited him to carry out a suicide attack against the Army but he remained hesitant. He also revealed the names of the suspects that he was contacting, and those who were going to conduct other security breaches in the north.

His confessions led the Army intelligence to detain two other suspects.

The report added that General Security detained on Thursday a wanted suspect and handed him over to Army intelligence.

The suspect was ordered directly by Mawlawi to target a military officer.

As-Safir said in its report that Mawlawi is taking orders from Talleh, using a fake identity to move between the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh and Tripoli, and changing his disguise every time.

Mawlawi is believed to have been hiding in Ain al-Hilweh since he fled Tripoli when the Army launched a security crackdown on Takfiri militants last year.

However, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk claimed in January that Mawlawi had joined militants in the outskirts of Arsal.

Lebanon's judiciary was charged him with operating a terrorist group with his partner-in-crime Osama Mansour. Mansour was killed in a shoot-out with police earlier this year.

Source: The Daily Star, Edited by website team