Lebanon says it uncovered a network linked to Hezbollah
Lebanese security agencies said they had uncovered a cross-border network that judicial and security sources link to the Hezbollah group and representatives of the former Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. As Asharq Al-Awsat reports, five people were detained in the case — three Syrians and two Lebanese.
According to the publication's sources, the group moved fighters from Syria across Lebanon's northern border, took them to Beirut's southern suburbs and then to a training camp in the Baalbek-Hermel area. Law enforcement officers seized weapons and ammunition, including hand grenades, machine guns and sniper rifles.
Investigators' version
According to sources, those detained said they had undergone training with Hezbollah fighters and operatives under the supervision of a man known as Hajj Alaa. The network, the publication's sources claim, was led by Major General Mohammed Jaber, the former commander of the Syrian army's Desert Brigade. According to them, he is currently in Moscow and was close to Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad.
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The detainees explained that the purpose of the training was preparation for a possible attack by current Syrian forces on Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. At the same time, investigators are checking, according to the sources, whether the group's tasks extended beyond military training.
Links in Syria and Lebanon
Initial investigation data, according to Asharq Al-Awsat, also indicate the possible existence of a broader network in Syria that includes more than 50 representatives of the former regime. They allegedly organized the movement of fighters to Lebanon and monitored the movements of Syrian forces in Syria. Sources also reported the possible involvement of three people linked to Hezbollah in transporting and training fighters.
Separately, the publication's sources reported the detention of an employee of Lebanon's General Security Service who had been in hiding for more than a week. According to them, he was a guard for the head of a Christian parliamentary bloc, the brother of one of those detained, and helped another person move and conceal a weapons cache in Talbira, a settlement in the Akkar district near the Syrian border. Lebanese security agencies continue to establish the network's structure and the people who may have been responsible for its financing, recruitment, transportation and training.
