Two Airport Employees Held for Contacting 'Terrorist Groups'

The Airport Security Apparatus has arrested two Lebanese airport employees on charges of “communicating with terrorist groups,” state-run National News Agency said on Sunday.

The two employees were apprehended “two days ago,” NNA said.

“They were employed at a company that provides services at the airport,” the agency added.

“Investigations are underway to unveil more information and the probe is being conducted in utmost confidentiality,” NNA said.

LBCI television identified the two employees as A. al-Ahmed and Kh. Samay, saying they worked for the Middle East Airports Services SAL company (MEAS), a subsidiary of Lebanon's national carrier Middle East Airlines.

MEAS is in charge of operating and maintaining the facilities of the Rafik Hariri International Airport.

The two employees' tasks involved “delivering luggage to planes in a direct manner,” LBCI said.

“The two detainees are currently being held at the army's Intelligence Directorate and one of them had worked at the airport for more than six years while the other has occupied his post for the past year and a half,” the TV network added.

“Al-Ahmed raised suspicions after a weapon was seized from his drawer at the airport,” LBCI said.

The TV network said the weapon was smuggled to the airport despite the fact that “workers and airliner cabin crews undergo security checks” prior to their entry to the airport's restricted areas.

“Al-Ahmed is a relative of the suspect M. al-Ahmed, the main suspect in the case of the Naameh booby-trapped car and the Bir al-Abed and Rweiss bombings,” LBCI said.

“M. al-Ahmed is a member of the Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades and one of the associates of detained terror mastermind Naim Abbas,” the TV network added, noting that the man has been sentenced to hard labor for life in absentia and that he has sought refuge at the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq has recently vowed that he will exert efforts to address “security gaps” at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport, hours after suicide bombers killed 35 people and wounded over 200 at Brussels airport and a metro train.

He warned that the said gaps “might be equivalent to those that were present at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport and led to the bombing of the Russian plane, according to Western reports.”

Mashnouq also noted that he had instructed Airport Security Chief Brig. Gen. George Doumit to “step up security readiness at Beirut's airport,” while calling on all security agencies to “maintain the highest levels of alert and vigilance and boost preventative measures.”

“The only choice will be to ask the Ministry of Finance to earmark the necessary funds in order to sign the needed contracts, in coordination with the Public Works and Transport Ministry,” the minister added.

He said “administrative obstacles that have been running for around 20 months” have prevented the government from “inking necessary contracts that have to do with repairing the airport's fence and buying advanced equipment and devices for baggage scanning.”