Lebanese forces on Tuesday (January 3rd) arrested a fugitive in Tripoli's al-Zahriyeh neighbourhood on suspicion of belonging to and communicating with the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL), Lebanese media reported.
An army unit raided a depot in Tripoli's al-Qobbeh district and seized a quantity of weapons from a parked pickup truck; while an army force raided the rooftop of a house in the same area, seizing a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher.
Earlier in the day, the army's Intelligence Directorate referred to the judiciary an 11-member terror cell recently arrested in Tripoli that had ties to fugitive al-Nusra Front (ANF) militant Shadi al-Mawlawi, the army said in a statement.
Al-Mawlawi, who is believed to be hiding in Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp, had ordered the cell to "send bomb-laden cars to Beirut's suburbs and assassinate civilians and incumbent and retired army officers", the army statement said.
Based on the confessions of cell members, "several locations were raided in the city of Tripoli and a large quantity of explosives, a suicide belt, remote detonation devices, weapons, ammunition and a pistol equipped with a silencer were seized", the statement said.
