On August 29, the Lebanese security forces arrested a terrorist cell of the ISIS organization in southern Lebanon. The operatives of the cell are Syrians, who previously fought in Syria, fled from it, and lived secretly in southern Lebanon as Syrian refugees. The cell contained 8 Syrians, including a woman. They lived in the Shiite villages near Israel, Ayta ash-Shab, and Maroun El-Ras. These villages are under the complete control of Hezbollah. The cell members were caught trying to sell fake dollars and deal drugs. One of the detainees was tortured to death during interrogation. Following the detainee’s death, the Lebanese military court ordered the arrest of an officer and five state security personnel.
Up to one and a half million Syrian refugees live in Lebanon today. They are all over Lebanon. Some of them operated in a military framework in the Jihad organizations in Syria, such as ISIS, Al-Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), etc. The spillover of the global jihad into Lebanon has disturbed, is disturbing, and will continue to greatly disturb the Lebanese security agencies in general and Hezbollah in particular. The spillover is manifested both in the physical spillover of global jihad activists as described here and in the ideological spillover affecting the Lebanese youth, mainly the Sunnis in northern Lebanon who belong to the lower class. These young people prepare themselves in local cells or alternatively leave Lebanon and join the ranks of ISIS cells operating in Syria and Iraq.
An article about the status of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon – and the discourse for their return will be published by us soon.
