Naharnet

Report: IS 'Emir' in Ain el-Hilweh Plotting Major Attacks across Lebanon

Imad Yassine, the so-called emir of the Islamic State group in the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, has received orders from IS foreign operations chief Abu Khaled al-Iraqi to stage major Iraq-like bombings across Lebanon, a media report said on Tuesday.

“The Lebanese army has obtained dangerous information and learned that Imad Yassine is plotting for major terrorist attacks in Lebanon, from Sidon to Beirut and the rest of the Lebanese regions,” al-Joumhouria newspaper quoted an unnamed senior security official as saying.

“The army will never allow these terrorist groups to tamper with Lebanon,” the official added.

“This dangerous situation prompts us to once again warn the camp's residents and the Palestinian factions that negligence in this regard might have severe repercussions on the camp, its residents and its neighbors, and this requires the factions and the camp's residents to shoulder the responsibility and expel the terrorist elements from it,” the official urged.

And citing “credible sources,” the newspaper said terrorist groups have recently “formed a number of terrorist cells and recruited terrorists and would-be suicide bombers in the Ain el-Hilweh camp.”

“These groups have prepared a dangerous plan involving a number of targets, the first of which is attacking the army units that are deployed around the camp and attempting to cut off the army's supply routes and most importantly the vital roads that the Lebanese army uses to reach its barracks,” the sources said.

“Another objective for these groups is cutting off the road to the South, especially the Sidon-Ghazieh and Sidon-Zahrani highways, seeing as the severing of these key routes would pressure Hizbullah and its popular base,” the sources added.

The terrorist groups are also seeking, according to the newspaper, to “create major chaos, destruction and terror in the various Lebanese regions, especially in Beirut and its southern suburbs, through targeting gatherings and densely-populated areas.”

Ad-Diyar newspaper meanwhile quoted unnamed sources as saying that the IS and the Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front are plotting for “displacing the camp's residents and turning it into a military zone that has an exceptional geographic sensitivity.”

In this regard, it quoted a senior Palestinian officials as saying that “measures are being taken and additional measures will follow, not only to rein in the terrorist elements in the camp, but also to 'cut off their hands.'”

By long-standing convention, the army does not enter the twelve Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, leaving the Palestinian factions themselves to handle security.

That has created lawless areas in many camps, and Ain el-Hilweh has gained notoriety as a refuge for extremists and fugitives.

But the camp is also home to more than 54,000 registered Palestinian refugees who have been joined in recent years by thousands of Palestinians fleeing the fighting in Syria.

More than 450,000 Palestinians are registered in Lebanon with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA. Most live in squalid conditions in 12 official refugee camps and face a variety of legal restrictions, including on their employment.


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