BAALBEK, Lebanon: The Lebanese Army, backed by security forces, staged a series of raids in the northern Bekaa Valley Friday, rounding up 56 wanted people and confiscating weapons and drugs on the second day of a security plan designed to crack down on crime and killings in the mostly deprived region.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, who supervised the implementation of security measures in several Bekaa Valley towns, vowed to clear the region of criminals, saying the plan would prevent wanted people who fled to Syria from returning to Lebanon.
An Army statement said the raids were concentrated in the towns of Baalbek, Brital, Hor Taala, Doris, al-Hammoudieh and other areas resulting in the arrest of 56 wanted people and suspected violators.
A joint 2,000-strong force from the Army, Internal Security Forces and General Security that carried out the raids also confiscated 18 cars lacking legal documents and about two tons of hashish stored in a warehouse in al-Hammoudieh, in addition to a large quantity of weapons, ammunition and communication equipment, the statement said.
Braving a severe snowstorm that has been pummeling Lebanon since Tuesday, Army vehicles rolled into Hor Taala, Brital and surrounding villages in search of people suspected of involvement in kidnappings for ransom, killings, drug smuggling and car thefts.
Police secured the entrances to homes as troops carried out the raids.
“A permanent operations room has been established in the Bekaa to chase all wanted people. The security operation will continue for days in an attempt to declare this region once and for all free of wanted people and criminals,” Machnouk told a news conference at the military barracks in Ablah in the city of Zahle after an inspection tour of checkpoints erected by the joint force in several towns.
He acknowledged that a number of wanted fugitives had escaped to Syria just before the raids began.
“We know that top wanted people ran away to Syrian territory,” he said, adding: “But the continued implementation of the security plan is to at least prevent them from returning and those who return will be arrested.”
Machnouk said cooperation for the first time between the Army, ISF and General Security reflected “unity in confronting terrorism, drugs, thefts and kidnapping.”
He added that security forces have about 37,000 arrest warrants, most of them for minor offenses, like shooting in wedding parties or during funeral services.
The minister said security forces did not encounter any resistance during the raids, and rejected negative stereotypes attached to the northern Bekaa.
“All the people that I met and talked to everywhere had a clear preference for the state’s presence, and they welcomed the security forces,” Machnouk said.
“Brital’s mayor told me: ‘We need development raids,’” Machnouk said. “It is true that the region suffers from deprivation, and the government must do whatever it can to change that.”
Machnouk said the security plan, which was first carried out in Tripoli last year to restore law and order to the violence-torn northern city, would be also enforced in Beirut and its southern suburbs at a later stage.
“There has been no political cover for any violator since the formation of the government,” he said.
Machnouk was accompanied on his tour in the Bekaa by ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous and head of General Security Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim.
The three men held a meeting at Brital’s municipality with the Baalbek-Hermel governor Bashir Khodr, Brital mayor Abbas Ismail and representatives of the Army command.
