Lebanon's judiciary has accused 14 Lebanese and Syrians, including a Hezbollah member and an Assad-era Syria officer, of forming and training groups to launch attacks in Syria, a judicial official said Thursday.
Earlier this month, Lebanese authorities arrested a group including a former Syrian intelligence officer and several accomplices who allegedly planned attacks against the forces of Syria's new government and received training from Iran-backed Hezbollah. The group has denied the allegation.
The official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the military court "charged 14 Lebanese and Syrian individuals, including five detainees, with offences including 'forming a criminal gang, receiving training in military weapons, explosives, sniper rifles, and operating drones, with the aim of carrying out terrorist acts on the Syrian coast'".
Among the detainees is Manaf Ali Safi, a Syrian intelligence officer under former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in 2024.
According to the official, Safi mentioned "bringing more than 40 officers and members of Assad's remnants from the Syrian coast through illegal border crossings in northern Lebanon, in batches of five people at a time".
The official added that "a Hezbollah official who is currently in hiding oversaw the smuggling of members of the network and their training" in Hezbollah camps in eastern Lebanon.
According to the judicial official, the network is led by a former Syrian army major general who is close to Assad and who, like the ousted longtime ruler, is now based in Moscow.
Syria's coast, heartland of the Alawite minority, from which Assad hails, was the scene of sectarian massacres last year.
The massacres, which authorities say broke out after attacks by Assad supporters against their forces, left at least 1,426 dead, according to a national commission of inquiry.
Syria and Lebanon meanwhile have been trying to turn a new page in their relations since Assad was toppled and after the weakening of his Lebanese ally, Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The group had sent fighters to support Assad during Syria's 13-year civil war.
Last month, Beirut extradited a former Assad-era general accused of crimes including murder and torture to Damascus.
Throw the book at them all. Life imprisonment with no opportunity of early release.
