Lebanese army targeted out of revenge

BEIRUT // A suspected terrorist cell, thought to have conducted at least three deadly bombings in northern Lebanon, targeted military and security sources out of revenge for the 2007 summer siege of the Nahr al Bared refugee camp by the Lebanese army, local security officials say. One of the officials said eight people - six Lebanese and two Palestinians - were arrested on Sunday evening in and around Tripoli, the scene of two bombings that targeted the Lebanese army this year. A security official involved with the case said at least two suspects had admitted to being members of Fatah al Islam, the radical group whose battle with the Lebanese army last year killed hundreds of people in a three-month siege and left tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees homeless.

Several people were arrested by a joint operation of Lebanese army and police units in Bibneen Akkar, a village outside the Bedawwi refugee camp, where thousands of Nahr al Bared residents have taken refuge. A series of raids was also conducted in Tripoli. Abu Mohammed, a security official with the Palestinian Fatah movement, said the arrested men were known radicals with ties to Fatah al Islam and some had lived in Nahr al Bared or in conservative neighbourhoods in Tripoli. Abu Mohammed also confirmed local media reports that Abdul Ghani Ali Jawar, 25, from Bibneen Akkar, who is thought to have led the group, escaped the raids on Sunday.

"I knew [Abdul Ghani] from back in the days," Abu Mohammed said. "His father is a farmer, but since 2001 - after the 9/11 attacks - he became a religious man like one of his brothers who died last year in the camp." Another young man arrested in the plot, Abu Mohammed said, was a local boy from Bedawwi who became radicalised after his brother was killed fighting alongside Fatah al Islam last year.

"When I went today to speak to his family, [I asked] them how he end up doing such a thing. Because from the way I know him he is a nice kid. [He] works hard [and is] religious, but not an extremist. But he got involved with what's left of Fatah al Islam because he wanted revenge for his brother who was killed last year." Security officials in Beirut confirmed that the suspected cell appears to be orientated around two religious families - one in the Palestinian camps and the other in a poor and conservative neighbourhood in Tripoli - and that in several cases, revenge for loved ones killed in the Nahr al Bared siege appears to have encouraged the members towards violence.

Northern Lebanon has seen a resurgence in conservative Sunni militancy in recent years and the area remains one of deep concern to local and regional security officials, who are concerned that a weak central government, fractured Sunni political scene and the return of veterans of the Iraq war could push the area into a wave of violence. Syria blames Lebanese-based Sunnis for a series of attacks on border posts as well as a deadly car bomb in Damascus that killed at least 17 people last month. Lebanese officials said no evidence links Sunday's arrests to the Damascus attack.

Abdul Ghani escaped, according to witnesses, by leaping from a rooftop as Lebanese security forces raided his sister's home in central Tripoli. Local residents said he had been living in the apartment for about a month after he was kicked out of his family home in Bibneen Akkar for continuing to associate with radicals. Neighbourhood residents said his eldest brother is a soldier in the Lebanese army and his younger brother was killed in the siege of Nahr al Bared, while fighting for Fatah al Islam.

"We all saw him jumping and we all got surprised about what was happening," according to Abu Ali, who witnessed the escape of Abdul Ghani and the arrest of his sister. "Many police and army were deployed in the area all of a sudden, and they rushed into this old building; then minutes later we saw a guy jumping on top of the buildings that are attached to each other." Security officials said they found a loaded suicide belt, bomb-making instructions, maps, false identity papers and codes for using mobile phone devices to detonate remote bombs. Documents found at the scene detailed plots to attack another army bus as well as the headquarters of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces in Beirut, local media reports said.

mprothero@thenational.ae