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Lebanon
Two Syrian airstrikes hit near Syrian refugee tents on the outskirts of Arsal in the Bekaa valley. The military prosecutor filed terrorism charges against Mohammed Abdel-Hamid Qassem, who has admitted to rigging car bombs and fundraising for the Al Nusrah Front; similar charges were also filed against others linked to Qassem who are at large.
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Iran
Hamas’ growing rivalry with Islamic Jihad
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Lebanon
Interior Minister Machnouk said Lebanon plans to restrict the influx of Syrian refugees, who now make up 27% of Lebanon’s population. Four Tripoli militia commanders surrendered to Army intelligence. The remains of a suicide bomber who detonated near the Iranian Embassy last year were returned to his relatives in Sidon. The head of an Islamic aid organization who was shot last week in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp died of his injuries.
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Lebanon
Police arrested Hussain Ismail, the head of a car theft ring in the Bekaa valley, after a shootout in which he and an associate, and two police officers, were wounded. A group called the Free Sunni Brigades claimed the firing of three rockets from Syria into Lebanon near Labweh. The military prosecutor issued arrest warrants for 38 more suspects linked to violence in Tripoli; only two are in custody. The US gave eight gunboats to the Lebanese Navy.
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Lebanon
Warily, Lebanon tackles violent spillover from Syria
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Lebanon
During security sweeps in Tripoli and the Bekaa valley, authorities arrested additional suspects on charges of murder, kidnapping, auto theft, membership in a terrorist group, and other crimes. Among those arrested yesterday in Arsal was Ahmed al Atrash, suspected of rigging explosives-packed vehicles; he is the brother of slain terrorist Sami al Atrash and a cousin of Omar Ibrahim al Atrash, who was reportedly involved in transporting suicide bombers. The three men were allegedly part of group led by Ibrahim al Atrash, who is linked with the Al Nusrah Front and the Abdullah Azzam Brigades in Greater Syria.
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Al Nusrah Front
Hezbollah develops new tactics in Syrian civil war
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Hezbollah
Hezbollah fighters say a ‘duty’ to help Syria’s Assad/a>
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Lebanon
The military deployed heavily in Tripoli to block a protest from the Sunni Bab al Tabbaneh neighborhood against the new security crackdown. A judge issued arrest warrants for 200 suspects in Tripoli and elsewhere, and at least 43 have been detained. Security forces arrested five wanted suspects in the Bekaa valley and seized several stolen vehicles. An estimated 300 Hezbollah fighters are said to have died in Syria.
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Gamaa Islamiya
Lebanon – Future Movement, Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya re-examine ties
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Lebanon
A military judge indicted four Syrians on charges bringing car bombs into Lebanon and membership in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham; one of the suspects was arrested in Arsal last month and the other three are at large. Arrest warrants were issued for pro-Assad politician Rifaat Eid and 11 associates on terrorism charges linked to clashes in Tripoli. Police captured Syrian national Mohannah Abdel Rahman, who escaped from prison in February. The military launched a new security plan in the Bekaa valley.
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Lebanon
Security forces arrested Mohammad Qassam and seven aides, all Syrians, in a refugee camp in Arsal; Qassam is accused of heading an al Qaeda group that rigs cars with explosives and sends them into Lebanon. Masked gunmen shot a Fatah-linked Sunni sheikh in the Ain el Hilweh refugee camp in Sidon. Hezbollah has turned over checkpoints in the north to the military as part of a new security plan; wanted militants are said to have fled, however. Hezbollah’s deputy leader predicted that the Assad regime in Syria will weather the conflict, and said the West should face that “reality.”
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Lebanon
Lebanon: Residents of Tripoli apprehensive as militants still at large
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Lebanon
Lebanese patriarch suggests housing Syrian refugees in Syria
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Lebanon
Salafist sheikh Dai al Islam al Shahhal warned that “something big will happen” because security forces had seized two cars from his convoy following grenade attacks during security sweeps in Tripoli. Hours later, gunmen ambushed an Army patrol in Akkar, killing two soldiers and wounding a third. Security forces in Tripoli detained two people, said to be Shahal’s bodyguards, for weapons and drivers license violations.
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Lebanon
Eight people were killed and 10 injured in clashes between Fatah and Ansar Allah factions in the Mieh Mieh Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon. Security forces in Tripoli arrested two militia leaders in Jabal Mohsen and another in Bab al Tabbaneh, and also confiscated weapons in Jabal Mohsen; security forces also arrested three fugitives in Hermel and seized weapons and hashish. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah claimed the group was responsible for a March 14 roadside bomb attack on an Israeli patrol in the Shebaa Farms area.
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Hezbollah
US lawmakers draft new Hezbollah sanctions
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Lebanon
European Islamists including UK-based extremist cleric Anjem Choudary called off a protest planned for Beirut; its aim was to denounce attempts to arrest Sheikh Omar Bakri and Muslims in north Lebanon, condemn alleged “conspiracy” between the Lebanese government and the Assad regime, and call for sharia law and the establishment of the caliphate. Three soldiers were wounded during a raid in Hermel. The military prosecutor filed terrorism charges against 12 people, 11 of them in absentia, for causing strife in Tripoli; among those charged is the Arab Democratic Party’s Rifaat Eid. A Lebanese man in Akkar found a grenade set…
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Lebanon
In an attack claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, three rockets hit two villages linked to Hezbollah in the Bekaa valley. The attack was also claimed by the Free Sunnis of Baalbek Brigade, which earlier criticized the new security plan for Tripoli. Charges were filed against eight Lebanese men, six of them in absentia, accused of terrorism and membership in the Al Nusrah Front. Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon denied reports that Lebanese detainees kidnapped during the 1975-90 civil war were still being held in Syrian prisons.
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Lebanon
The house of extremist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammad, who has been banned from the UK, was raided during security sweeps in Tripoli that netted 75 arrests. Two rockets ready to launch toward the Shiite town of Nabi Othman, where the Al Nusrah Front in Lebanon carried out a suicide car bombing last month, were found in Arsal. Soldiers manning a border checkpoint in Wadi Hmayyed near Arsal opened fire on three suspected Al Nusrah members from Syria who refused to stop at the checkpoint, killing one and wounding the other two.
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Lebanon
New Lebanese Domestic Violence Law Evokes Sharp Criticism
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Lebanon
Security forces warned that large numbers of Al Nusrah Front fighters have moved into Lebanon recently and are plotting with other radical groups, some based in the Ain al Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp. Some extremist fighters currently in Akkar are said to be planning to train with the Free Syrian Army in Syria. Arms are being smuggled into Syria from Arsal and the Bekaa valley with FSA help. Lebanese forces scoured the Sunni neighborhood of Bab al Tabbaneh in Tripoli for wanted militants. The Liwaa Ahrar al-Sunna-Baalbek fired three rockets from Syria into Labweh, killing one person and wounding another.
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Lebanon
The army dismantled a car bomb in Wadi Hmayyed near Arsal. Unknown perpetrators blew up a large building under construction in Akkar, reviving sectarian tensions. Warrants were issued for 200 suspects linked to violence and crime in Tripoli; among those sought are militia leaders in both the Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen and the Sunni neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh. Hezbollah is reportedly reforming its security apparatus after leaks.
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Lebanon
A suicide car bomb detonated near a recently erected military checkpoint outside Arsal, killing three soldiers and wounding four others. The Liwa Ahrar al-Sunna in Baalbek claimed the attack, saying it was to avenge the death of Sami Atrash, a suspected maker of suicide car bombs who was killed after a March 27 shootout with security forces. A woman and a child were fatally shot when they car in which they were riding failed to stop at an Arsal checkpoint; the male driver was wounded. The military confiscated 19 stolen vehicles from Atrash’s home in Arsal. The military is implementing…
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Lebanon
The Army confiscated a large cache of weapons and bomb-making materials during a raid in Akkar. Security forces launched launched raids in Tripoli after masked gunmen killed an Army officer and a policeman in separate attacks. Dai al-Islam al-Shahal, a leading Salafist, urged Sunni youth to defend their rights. Hezbollah is said to be revising its media strategy to minimize coverage of its activities in Syria.
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Lebanon
Masked gunmen killed an army officer in Tripoli. Suspected car bomb expert Sami Ahmad Atrash died following a shootout in Arsal with police; authorities are conducting raids in Arsal in search of terrorists linked to Atrash. After an Islamic Jihad initiative, Fatah agreed to a memorandum of understanding with Islamists in Lebanon, including Hamas, the Osbat al-Ansar group, and Sheikh Jamal Khattab. The UN called for more aid for Lebanon, warning that the country could collapse from the influx of 1,000,000 Syrian refugees, who have increased its population by 25 percent.
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Al Nusrah Front
Counting the Cost in Arsal
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Lebanon
The military prosecutor recommended that 21 people be indicted for two car bombings in Tripoli last August; among them are Alawite leader Ali Eid and Tripoli-based preacher Hashem Minqara. Three people were killed in Tripoli in incidents related to the Syrian conflict. Government and military officials convened to discuss ways to improve security and prevent spillover of the Syrian conflict into Lebanon.
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Hezbollah
Only a ground offensive will defeat the enemy, says senior IDF source
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Lebanon
A Syrian woman in Tripoli and a Lebanese gas station owner in the Bekaa valley both tried to immolate themselves but were saved when bystanders intervened. At least two rockets from Syria landed near Baalbek. About 50 rockets have reportedly been fired this month at Lebanese towns in Hezbollah strongholds.
