Lebanon guards against 'lone wolf' attacks

Lebanese forces have been working to protect the country against "lone wolf" attacks by creating strong military, civilian and international partnerships to apprehend them before they can do harm, military officials tell Al-Mashareq.

"Terrorism has become the No. 1 threat to the peoples of the world," Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Jean Kahwaji said, addressing a delegation of international military attachés on January 18th.

Attacks carried out by "lone wolves" are a particular concern, he said, as these attacks are "difficult for intelligence agencies to uncover in the planning stages, regardless of their level of security proficiency and capability".

Countries of the world must work together to combat individual attacks, he said.

This can be done by intensifying efforts to destroy the central organisational structures of terror groups, he said, and by combating their ideology with a counter-narrative formulated by leading religious, cultural and media figures.

Military might is not enough to win this battle, Kahwaji said, pointing to the need to safeguard the educational and cultural arena from extremist ideology and to dry up the sources of funding that enable these groups to operate.

Cross-border co-operation between countries is needed to successfully combat terrorism, he added, "because the threat it poses extends beyond geographical borders to all corners of the world".

In mid-January, Lebanese forces arrested an 18-year-old Syrian girl who had rigged herself with explosives in order to carry out a suicide attack on behalf of the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL).

The girl, named as Bushra Fattouh, was arrested following close surveillance and monitoring of terror groups and affiliated sleeper cells, the General Directorate of General Security (GDGS) said in a January 17th statement.

Blocking potential attacks

Potential lone wolf attacks are tackled on two fronts, defence and security affairs expert Riad Kahwaji told Al-Mashareq.

"The first involves intelligence co-operation between state agencies, and between those agencies and their counterparts in allied states, to identify suspects and those involved in suspect activities, and identify the parties and individuals with whom they are in contact and the countries in which they are based," he said.

The second involves "providing awareness-raising programmes for teachers in schools to enable them to monitor the behaviour of students and changes in their behaviour and inform their parents of every change, in addition to providing educational programmes for parents", he added.

Fighting terrorism is first and foremost an intelligence task, he said.

The decline in the number of terror attacks and the recession of the threat at the eastern border signal the success of Lebanese forces in fighting terrorism "and their ability to counter its various tactics", he said.

"The security forces’ success in conducting pre-emptive operations , including arresting individuals and infiltrating terror cells that are in the process of preparing terror attacks, as well as their success in tracking suspects and listening in on their communications, has boosted [their] success rate," he said.

Encouraging public co-operation

The 'lone wolf' tactic can take two forms, said military expert Brig. Gen. Khalil Helou, a retired Lebanese officer.

"The first involves dispatching an individual to assimilate into a certain community without raising suspicion until he receives an order from his handlers," he told Al-Mashareq.

"The second, which we are seeing today, involves dispatching individuals to carry out terrorist acts such as bombings and killings without any logistical support," he said.

The 'lone wolf' tactic is the most difficult form of terrorism to tackle, he added, because contact between the individual and his handlers is virtually non-existent, and the individual acts alone, without raising suspicion.

Dealing with this form of terrorism requires that the technology used by security agencies be constantly enhanced and upgraded to enable them to conduct surveillance more effectively, he said.

Citizens must be encouraged to co-operate with security agencies and report any suspicious person or activity, he said, highlighting the need for co-operation between Lebanese security agencies and municipalities in this regard.

The role of schools, parents and clerics in education also must be activated for the sake of raising a moderate and open-minded generation, he said, adding that this is a long-term process and must be sustained.

Confronting deviant ideology

In the present era, terror groups and individual aggressors are coming up with new ways "to murder, attack and harm people" to convey their deviant ideology, social psychologist Dr. Rajaa Makki told Al-Mashareq.

Acts of terrorism target those the aggressor perceives as posing a threat or a danger to them, she said, adding that from this perspective, terrorists do not view civilians as innocents but rather as a means to satiate their hatred.

Terrorists are driven by hatred, she said, "so they pursue violence as the only means to convey the ideas and feeling buried deep inside them". They "refuse to co-exist with others" or integrate into the community.

"They seek, from their perspective, to reach the ideal glorified in their imaginations through the use of excessive force, in the belief that excluding and abolishing others immortalises them," she said.

This form of terrorism is difficult to confront, Makki said.

It is therefore vital to raise public awareness about its dangers, establish treatment centres for people with violent tendencies, ensure children are raised well, and disseminate the idea of brotherly love in society, she added.