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Lebanon says foiled planned Daesh attacks on bustling areas

Thursday, 30 June 2016 12:01 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 30 June 2016 5:59 PM ]

Lebanese army soldiers patrol near the site, where bomb attacks took place in the Christian village of Qaa, on the border with Syria, on June 28, 2016. ©Reuters

The Lebanese army says it has foiled two planned terrorist attacks by Takfiri Daesh militants on a tourist site and a crowded area.

According to an army statement released by Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) on Thursday, five people involved in the thwarted assaults, including the mastermind, were detained.

“Those arrested confessed to having carried out terrorist acts against the army previously. Investigations are continuing,” the statement read.

On June 27, eight bombers launched two waves of attacks on the northeastern Christian village of Qaa, located on the border with violence-wracked Syria, killing five people and injuring almost 30 others.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the deadly bombings, but security officials believe Daesh terrorists were behind the raids.

Lebanese mourners attend the funeral service of victims of bomb attacks in the Christian village of Qaa, on the border with Syria, on June 29, 2016. ©AFP

Lebanese security chiefs have warned of a heightened terrorist threat in the wake of the Qaa attacks, with Prime Minister Tammam Salam raising concerns about "a new wave of terrorist operations.”

Lebanon’s Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk said most of the Qaa bombers came from crisis-hit Syria.

Authorities have arrested some 120 Syrians from makeshift refugee camps in the country over the past few days, a security source said.

Lebanon is suffering from the spillover of militancy in neighboring Syria where foreign-backed terrorists have been fighting the government forces since 2011.

Daesh and al-Nusra Front, which is the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda militant group, have been active on the regions situated close to the Syrian border.

Last November, however, more than 40 people were killed and dozens of others wounded after two bombings, claimed by Daesh extremists, targeted a security post in the Bourj el-Barajneh area in the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Assisting Syrian army forces, fighters with the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement have fended off several Daesh attacks.

Hezbollah says its military mission in Syria is aimed at preventing the spillover of the Syria crisis into Lebanon.

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