BEIRUT: Lebanese internal security forces have announced the arrest of a Lebanese minor suspected of belonging to Daesh who was planning to carry out a terrorist operation by “placing a roadside bomb and remotely detonating it when a Lebanese army patrol passed in the area where he resides.”
Security sources told Arab News that the minor “is from the impoverished region of Akkar (northern Lebanon), and when he was arrested, he seemed convinced of what he was doing after he was persuaded by the people who communicated with him to carry out ‘jihad.’”
The Directorate General of the Security Forces, Public Relations Section, said in a statement that the arrest of the minor was part of “the preventive security strategy adopted by the information division of the internal security forces, in terms of focusing on members of the Daesh organization and those affected by its terrorist ideology.”
The directorate said it received information on Daesh’s intent to carry out terrorist operations and “as a result of tracking and monitoring, a special force of the division carried out a rapid security operation in which (the minor) A.D, born in 2002 in the Akkar area, was arrested and interrogated.”
Consequently, the detainee admitted to “joining many Daesh-affiliated groups about eight months ago, which distributed Daesh publications and ideologies.”
He added that he “met, through these groups, three people belonging to the organization, and discussed with them moving to Syria but, due to the difficulty in reaching Syria, they advised him to work for the organization in Lebanon because that combines the rewards for exodus and jihad itself.”
The directorate added in its statement that the minor “was convinced of their point of view, and told one of them that he intended to carry out a terrorist attack in Lebanon. The person encouraged him to do so and asked him to swear allegiance to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi as the caliph of Muslims.
The person also told him that he would be assisted and directed in the manufacture of an explosive device in order to carry out an operation in Lebanon.
The minor agreed and he was given the text of the oath of allegiance, which he read before that person.
The person sent to the minor an electronic link under the name of the “explosives channel” containing methods and means of manufacturing and preparing explosives. For five months, the young boy learned how to manufacture explosives with 46-caliber nitrate and other materials.
Two weeks before his arrest, the person sent him the way to prepare an explosive device and a detonator and asked him to get the necessary materials, so that the operation could be carried out through a “cellular phone” linked to the explosive device.
According to the investigation, the detainee said he “started searching for nitrate but was unable to find it.
“Moreover, he did not explore any specific targets, so he decided to put a roadside bomb and detonate it remotely when a Lebanese army patrol passed through the area where he lived.”
About a month ago, the directorate said the same person “sent him (the minor) a detailed videotape about how to prepare an explosive device using a domestic gas cylinder used for cooking, and asked him to prepare it because it was easy and the material was easy to find.
“He (the minor) proceeded to prepare it secretly, but he was arrested before the device was finished.”
However, journalist Hazem Al-Amin, a specialist in terrorist groups, especially Daesh, told Arab News that he had doubts in the possibility of any communication “between Daesh and other groups in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon because the organization lost its ability to communicate two years ago and became separate segments.”
Al-Amin also questioned the possibility that the young boy communicated with Daesh, saying that the Lebanese security services did not show competence or credibility in the field of investigations conducted after the big scandal of one of the security services in the case of Ziad Itani, which later proved to be fabricated.
But Al-Amin stressed that “individuals can carry out terrorist acts,” pointing out that Al-Nusra Front terrorist organization is still operating in the Syrian province of Idlib and has a limited presence in a number of areas surrounding Syria.
