ISIS terrorist plotting military officer assassination arrested in Lebanon

Lebanese counterterrorism forces have arrested a militant of the terrorist group ISIS, who was plotting an assassination of a high-ranking officer of the Lebanese military, the country’s Armed Forces said Saturday in a statement obtained by Sputnik, APA reports.

The militant, nicknamed Hassan Hamed Al Hassan, was arrested in the course of anti-terror operation. He was responsible for the group’s security and logistics, as well as was ordered by a group of Daesh chiefs to prepare an assassination of a high-ranking officer of the Lebanese army, according to the statement.

To carry out the task, the suspect put together a group of militants, procured necessary weapons and explosives, and set up a watch to track the victim, the statement adds.

Lebanon announced the start of the offensive against the Daesh enclave on the northeast part of its border with Syria on August 19. Damascus and the Lebanese militia movement Hezbollah are also currently carrying out their anti-Daesh offensive on the Syrian side of the border.

The Lebanese Army eliminated 12 Daesh strongholds on the Lebanese-Syrian border during the second day of its anti-Daesh offensive, according to a statement of the army’s command obtained by Sputnik on Sunday.

Daesh is a violent extremist group that is seeking to establish the Islamic caliphate on the seized territories of the Middle East countries, such as Iraq and Syria. It is accused of many atrocities, including the genocide against Yazidis, an ethnoreligious group in Iraq.

Source: /APA