Lebanese Interior Minister Ziad Baroud has said that the breakthrough in arresting members of an extremist "terrorist cell" in North Lebanon, responsible for three attacks on the Lebanese army, "does not mean the threats have been eliminated", As-Safir daily reported Tuesday.
"The security agencies remain on alert," Baroud said after the meeting of the military's security council, which convened to evaluate and discuss steps to be followed in tracking down all the cell members.
According to the report, six suspects were arrested Sunday in a joint operation between the Lebanese army and internal security forces (ISF) in the northern city of Tripoli.
But the mastermind of the operations and a leading figure in the group Abdul-Ghani Jawhar was able to escape from his sister's house in Tripoli when the army troops were entering the street to arrest him.
Maps and documents were seized in two places searched in Tripoli and Akkar, which prove that the army and ISF were the next target and assassinations of Lebanese leaders were also under preparation.
"So far the army has been the sole target off attacks by the cell, and the operations they were planning target the army and ISF," a security source told As-Safier daily.
The terrorist cell is said to be responsible for three bomb attacks against the Lebanese army, in revenge for the army's victory over the extremist Islamist group Fattah al-Islam last year in the Palestinian refugee camp of Naher al-Barid.
The Lebanese army ousted Fattah al-Islam fighters from Naher al-Barid near Tripoli in September 2007, after 15 weeks of fighting that left 400 people dead, including 168 soldiers.
The sweeping victory of the Lebanese army against Fattah al-Islam was not complete because the group's leader Shaker Abssi was able to escape and vowed to revenge.
Security forces are checking all border points to found out that the leader of the arrested "terrorist cell" Abdul-Ghani Jawhar, who is still on the run, said the report.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian delegation visited Monday the Lebanese Defense Ministry to offer their help to the Lebanese army in cracking down the rest of the cell members, and prevent any attempt to hide Jawhar in the Baddawi Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli.
The Lebanese army is not allowed to enter the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, according to the Cairo accord which organized the situation of Palestinian refugees in 1959.
On Sept. 29, four soldiers and three civilians were also killed in a military bus explosion in Tripoli, and a similar attack occurred on Aug. 13, killing 14 people including nine soldiers and a child. A bomb also targeted an army soldier in Tripoli last summer.
The Tripoli bombings had sparked fears that northern Lebanon was becoming a haven for Sunni extremist groups.
Source:Xinhua
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