Lebanese authorities have foiled a plot threatening security in Lebanon and Syria, dismantling a dangerous cross-border network linked to Hezbollah and remnants of the former Syrian regime. Judicial and security sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that five network members, three Syrians and two Lebanese, had been arrested. The group brought fighters from Syria into Lebanon across the northern border, moved them to Beirut’s southern suburbs and then sent them to a training camp in the Baalbek-Hermel region. The detainees held both Lebanese and Syrian citizenships, the sources said. The most prominent was Syrian Colonel Manaf Ali Safi, who had been in charge of a security branch under the former Syrian regime. Authorities seized weapons and ammunition from the network, including hand grenades, machine guns, and sniper rifles. The arsenal raised fears about what the group was preparing to do, particularly as investigators examine whether its objectives went beyond military training. Possible attack on the Bekaa Preliminary investigations showed that the detainees admitted receiving training from Hezbollah fighters and operatives led by a man known as “Hajj Alaa,” according to the sources. The network was run by Major General Mohammed Jaber, the former commander of the Desert Brigade in the Syrian army, the sources revealed. Jaber is now in Moscow and is known to have been close to ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The case poses a major security challenge for Lebanon, given the network’s ability to move across the Lebanese-Syrian border at a highly sensitive time in relations between Beirut and Damascus. The detainees claimed the stated purpose of the training was to prepare for a possible attack by Syria’s current forces on Lebanon’s Bekaa region, the judicial and security sources said. Initial findings also pointed to a broader network inside Syria involving more than 50 remnants of the former regime. They arranged the transfer of fighters from Syria into Lebanon and monitored Syrian forces’ movements inside Syria. Sowing unrest and security chaos Initial information also implicated three Hezbollah-linked individuals in bringing in and training the fighters. Several other names remain under scrutiny as investigators seek to establish their roles. The sources said the network’s mission likely went beyond preparing to repel a possible Syrian incursion. They said it may have sought to sow unrest and security chaos in Lebanon, carry out assassinations and, most importantly, conduct operations in Syria’s coastal region. That assessment was based on the weapons seized, including explosives, military-grade machine guns, sniper rifles and hand grenades. Bodyguard to Christian bloc leader arrested In a significant development, the sources said a member of Lebanon’s State Security agency who was part of the group had been arrested at dawn on Wednesday after more than a week in hiding. The man worked as a bodyguard for the head of a Christian parliamentary bloc. He is the brother of one of the detainees and helped another person move and conceal a cache of weapons hidden in Talbira, an Akkar town near the Syrian border, the sources said. The town served as an assembly point for fighters arriving from Syria before they were moved to Beirut’s southern suburbs. That adds a more sensitive dimension to the case, pointing to organized routes for moving people and weapons across the border. Lebanese security agencies are working to uncover the network’s full structure and identify everyone involved, particularly those suspected of handling financing, recruitment, transportation and training. Investigators are also seeking to determine what operations the group was preparing and whether it has other cells in Lebanon or Syria.
