Lebanese army ‘thwarts terror attack in Baalbek’

Beirut: A day after the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) revealed that it had “ambushed” and killed five men believed to be Al Nusra fighters as they apparently tried to enter the besieged predominantly Sunni city of Arsal alongside the Syrian border, the daily Al Nahar reported on Thursday that the LAF had thwarted a terrorist plot that aimed to spread havoc near the Northern Bekaa town of Baalbek.

The newspaper revealed that the army arrested 30 people including six with foreign passports — 3 Koreans and 3 Americans — while the remaining 24 were believed to be Syrian nationals. According to the daily’s unnamed Baalbek correspondent, LAF units were tipped-off and arrested the culprits at the Talya makeshift refugee camp, east of Baalbek. An initial investigation confirmed that the suspects were plotting to target religious, commercial, and residential areas, even if few details were made public. The daily further asserted that the plan aimed to simultaneously launch dozens of rockets from an area near Talya that, once again, could not be independently verified.

It was unclear what were the three Koreans (the paper did not state whether they were from North or South Korea) and three US nationals were doing in the area.

Gulf News could not confirm whether the three Americans were dual citizens, and while many Lebanese carried foreign passports, few are known to enjoy Korean nationality. In the past, North Korean “advisers” were consulted by the Syrian regime, though little is known about any current contacts or the actual number of North Koreans operating in Syria or Iraq.

Al Nahar, which provided a bold headline on its front page, nevertheless buried the details of the story inside the paper. All 30 suspects were apparently transferred to the capital for questioning, though Beirut authorities refused to elaborate on their whereabouts, or the stage of the investigation. A security source told the newspaper that the army was on heightened security as thousands of expatriates flocked into the country to celebrate the holidays with family members.