Tuesday, 10 March 2015

Lebanese ISIS recruits receiving training in Syria


A group of young men from Akkar were recruited to an ISIS cell recently and traveled to Turkey with the intention of undergoing training in a militant camp in Syria, sources told The Daily Star Tuesday.


The sources said Lebanon’s security services were informed that Syrian national Fayez Kh. A., better known as Hajj Ammar, arrived to Lebanon days ago and met a number of ISIS members in the northern district of Akkar.


Fayez has recruited a number of young men who left for Turkey and plan to cross to Syria to fight alongside ISIS, the sources said.


The cell is set to receive training on how to rig vehicles with explosives and how to wear an explosive belt in one of ISIS’ training camps in the Syrian governorate of Raqqa. Later, the group is expected to carry out operations in Syria and Iraq.


The report said that in Turkey, the cell had joined a group of jihadis headed by Ziad Kh., N.


Lebanese security agencies fear an escalation in terrorist acts this month in light of information indicating that the Abdullah Azzam Brigades is planning on resuming suicide operations.


Meanwhile, the sources said that dispersed groups from the Syrian opposition group Jaysh al-Islam were living in Arsal.


These fighters snuck into the northeastern border town from the Syrian region of Qalamoun and the suburbs of Damascus in an attempt to gain a foothold. Similar efforts by ISIS and the Nusra Front to do the same were rejected by Arsal residents, and the presence of Jaysh al-Islam in the town is still weak, sources said.


Separately, security sources said that the Lebanese Army is expected to receive advanced weapons in the coming two months, including F5 jets from the U.S.


The Army Command is now preparing to send a number of soldiers and officers to Europe to take training sessions on how to use the first batch of French weapons which Lebanon will receive in April as part of a $ 3 billion Saudi grant announced in late 2013.


Coordination between the Lebanese and Jordanian armies has increased recently and should culminate in a visit by Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi to Amman soon, according to information obtained by The Daily Star.


The kingdom has recently provided the military with a number of vehicles to improve its ability to combat terrorism, an indicator of the brotherly relations between the two states.


The sources explained that the cooperation between the Lebanese and Jordanian armies was taking place in coordination with the U.S., to complement efforts made by a number of states which are members of the international anti-ISIS coalition.


Among the vehicles that the Army will receive soon are 4x4 all-terrain Pamhard VBLs. The vehicle was designed to combine agility with adequate protection against small arms fire, artillery fragments, mines and NBC weapons.


The VBL is amphibious and can run in waters at 5.4 km/h; it is also air transportable. Developed during the 1980s, it entered operational service in France in 1990. It has a fuel consumption of 16 liters per 100 km. The exact number of VBLs Lebanon will receive remains unclear.


The VBL has been used in peacekeeping operations in Bosnia, Lebanon, Somalia and Kosovo.



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