TRIPOLI, Lebanon: The Lebanese Army Friday stepped up its campaign against militants, arresting more than 40 suspects, hours after a soldier was killed in an attack on a military bus in the north, in the fourth such deadly assault in less than month.
The Army identified the victim as Jamal Jean Hashem, a 19-year-old private, who was instantly killed in the predawn attack on the bus transporting troops to their post on the Bireh road in the northern Akkar district.
Following the attack, troops staged a series of massive raids in a number of Syrian refugee camps in the village of Khirbet Daoud and other areas, rounding up 41 Syrians and three Lebanese suspected of committing subversive acts, the military said in a statement.
Some military equipment along with a van vehicle and nine motorcycles without license plates were also confiscated during the raids, the statement added.
A senior military official said the attacks will not deter the Army from continuing its campaign against terrorist groups. “On the contrary, the Army has stepped up its security measures by rounding up a large number of terror suspects following Friday’s attack,” the official told The Daily Star.
The slain soldier’s body was taken to Salam Hospital in his hometown of Qobeiyat, while sorrow and grief gripped the village as residents blocked the main road in protest.
Friday’s was the latest in a series of attacks targeting the Army in the north, reflecting simmering tensions following the fierce battles between Lebanese troops and ISIS and Nusra Front militants in the northeastern town of Arsal in early August. The militants are still holding hostage 27 soldiers and policemen captured during the fighting.
On Sept. 23, gunmen shot dead a soldier in the northern city of Tripoli. A soldier died in a bomb blast in Tripoli on Oct. 7, while another serviceman was killed in an attack in the Akkar district two days later by gunmen on a motorbike.
Meanwhile, young men fired gunshots in the air as they marched in Tripoli to mourn the death of Mohammad al-Maneh, a man from Beddawi who was killed in a shootout with the Army Thursday.
The gunfire startled residents, months after a security plan ended the deadly series of clashes between rival neighborhoods Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.
In a separate statement, the military said two patrol units came under fire while an unidentified person tossed a hand grenade at one of its posts in al-Bisar neighborhood of Tripoli. There were no casualties.
Soldiers responded to the source of the gunfire and were in pursuit of the perpetrators.
A security source said another Lebanese soldier was wounded when an Army patrol in Zahriyeh, Tripoli, came under fire. He was identified as Jamal Ashek.
Shortly afterward, the Army found a 200 gram homemade bomb near a shop in the Tripoli neighborhood of Abi Samra. Experts safely detonated the explosive device.
The raid against Syrians in Khirbet Daoud came after Lebanese troops searched the house of Atef Saadeddine, a soldier who had deserted the Army, the source said. A man was arrested in the Tripoli neighborhood of Akoumi for his involvement in opening fire on an Army checkpoint in a previous attack, the source added.
Elsewhere, a Lebanese suspect, identified as Ibrahim Bohlok, was arrested Friday for his involvement in the Arsal clashes, the source said.
Media reports claimed that Bohlok had confessed to killing Army Col. Noureddine Jamal during the Arsal fighting. But this could not be confirmed by military officials.
For his part, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk warned the Army’s attackers that they would be hunted down and prosecuted.
“Neither your turbans nor your beards will protect you, criminals,” Machnouk said at a conference organized by the Kataeb Party on the role of municipalities in maintaining security. “We will be on the lookout for you.”
His comments largely echoed those made by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. “We call on the security forces to arrest the culprits and inflict on them a just [severe] punishment,” Siniora said.
General Security agents discovered 600 grams of explosives along with some arms and ammunition in the southern village of Khartoum, a General Security source said.
Separately, Defense Minister Samir Moqbel will head to Tehran Saturday to discuss the pledged military aid to the Lebanese Army, his office said.
A statement released by the Iranian Embassy earlier this week said the aid would only include weapons and ammunition, but could open the doors to new, more sophisticated military support in the future.
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