The Lebanese army says a high-ranking Daesh militant commander recently arrested at a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern part of the country had been planning simultaneous bombings.
Lebanon-based Arabic-language daily As-Safir, citing military officials, reported on Friday that the senior Daesh figure, identified as Imad Yassine, was about to carry out a series of attacks aimed at “inflicting the largest number of casualties and hitting the Lebanese economy and tourism sectors.”
As-Safir noted that the targets included Bank of Lebanon building, Jiyeh and Zahrani power stations, Monday Market in the southern city of Nabatieh, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) troopers stationed south of the Litani River in southern Lebanon, a fast food restaurant north of Beirut, and Lebanese army convoys.
The leading Lebanese daily added that Yassine was also planning to fire a barrage of rockets into the Israeli-occupied Palestinian lands.
The Lebanese army detained Yassine in the Taware neighborhood of the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, located near the southwestern port city of Sidon, on Thursday following fierce overnight clashes between Takfiri extremists and members of the Palestinian Fatah movement there.
The top Daesh commander was arrested in a covert operation as he was at a local shop. He reportedly did not resist arrest and was transported to an unknown location.
The clashes began after a group of masked gunmen opened fire on the relatives of a Palestinian driver shot dead on September 19.