Beirut: One person was killed and two others were arrested in a fierce clash between Lebanese security personnel and members of the Ja‘afar clan in Baalbek when Internal Security Forces (ISF) raided a drug warehouse on Friday.
According to an ISF report, clashes broke out when several security personnel raided a depot in Al Kayyal area near Baalbek, in the Bekaa Valley. The raid was conducted by ISF personnel on a tip-off to apprehend several wanted individuals from the Ja‘afar clan, but they stumbled on a warehouse containing sophisticated equipment and raw materials used for manufacturing Captagon pills.
The ISF unit confronted heavy gunfire from light- and medium-calibre machineguns as well as rocket-propelled grenades, which prompted it to seek help from Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).
According to the ISF report a 51-year-old Lebanese and a 49-year-old Palestinian were arrested after the clash, as it launched a probe under the supervision of relevant judicial authorities.
ISF and LAF units regularly carry out similar raids in the largely lawless Baalbek neighbourhoods, with the Al Sharawneh and Al Kayyal areas as prime targets.
What troubled the authorities during the raids was the increasing use of heavy machine guns and RPGs, which are not supposed to be available to the civilians.
Major drug busts in Lebanon regularly draw attention to the trade in Captagon pills, that has flourished because of war in Syria. More than 400,000 Captagon pills were seized pills in the current raid.
An ISF spokesman told Gulf News that “no one should be surprised by these raids, arrests, and acts of violence against law-enforcement personnel.
