BEIRUT: The military is fully prepared to confront imminent terror plots designed to destabilize the country, Lebanese Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi said Wednesday, vowing to prevent jihadi groups from gaining a foothold in Lebanon.
“We’ve made several great achievements, but this does not mean that the threat of [security] incidents and crises are over. We are fully prepared to confront them and they will not be any more difficult than previous [threats],” Kahwagi said.
His remarks were addressed to soldiers and officers after touring Army posts in the volatile towns of Arsal and Labweh on the northeastern frontier with Syria.
“Lebanon cannot change and can never be part of the conflict in the region because of your steadfastness here and because of the strength and unity of the Army,” Kahwagi said.
“We’ve been in difficult circumstances, but we achieved one victory after another against terrorism, whether on the eastern border, in Arsal in particular, or in Tripoli, its environs and other areas over the past years,” Kahwagi said.
Kahwagi’s visit comes over five months after Arsal was briefly invaded by militants from ISIS and the Nusra Front, who captured over 30 soldiers and Internal Security Forces personnel during the battle.
Troops stationed in Arsal clash with militants intermittently, who are still holding 25 servicemen on Arsal’s far outskirts.
Kahwagi lauded soldiers for “ongoing efforts and sacrifices” they have made that have helped curb the infiltration of militant groups into Lebanon and isolate them to a specific geographic area.
Kahwagi highlighted the Army’s determination to prevent the expansion of terrorism into Lebanon regardless of the sacrifices required.
The Army commander said the military’s recent border measures and its crackdown on terror cells across the country would protect Lebanon from chaos and strife.
Kahwagi inspected Army posts in Dahr al-Jabal, Wadi Hmeid, Masyadeh and Qalaa.
In recent months the military closed off all but one crossing into Arsal’s outskirts in a bid to control border movements more effectively. Separately, the Army said it had arrested a man suspected of hosting the two suicide bombers behind the Tripoli cafe attack earlier this month.
The statement said that the suspect, identified as Qassem Youssef Taljeh, was spotted surveying the scene of the Jan. 10 attack in the neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen two hours before the bombings.
He was also seen with the two attackers just before they blew themselves up near the Omran cafe, killing at least nine people and wounding over 30. It did not specify when the suspect was arrested.
The twin suicide bombings were carried out by Taha Samir al-Khayal and Bilal Mohammad al-Mariyan who hailed from the Mankoubin neighborhood, adjacent to Jabal Mohsen.
The statement added that with Taljeh in custody, a report related to the terrorist cell behind the attack was nearly complete, since most of its members had been arrested.
But judicial sources Tuesday told The Daily Star Lebanon’s top military prosecutor charged 28 people over the blast of whom only four were in custody. It was unclear whether Taljeh was among the four already detained.
Later in the day, the Army also announced in a statement the arrest of Mohammad Walid Hujeiri in Arsal. He was wanted for assaulting an Army patrol that left one soldier dead and several others wounded.
The Army also arrested in Arsal Syrian national Nawaf Mohammad Ishaq, who is wanted for attempting to evade an Army checkpoint at the entrance to the town.
According to the statement, the aforementioned suspect possessed papers that indicated his allegiance to a “terrorist organization.”
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