Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Fears of terror attacks swept the country Tuesday, a day after security forces dealt a heavy blow to Islamist militants by dismantling their operations room at the notorious Roumieh Prison.
Such fears were corroborated by the Lebanese Army’s arrest in Tripoli of a Lebanese man suspected of plotting a suicide attack, days after a deadly twin suicide bombing targeted a crowded cafe in the northern city.
Bassam Houssam Naboosh was arrested in Tripoli’s Mankoubine neighborhood over suspicions of preparing to blow himself up, the Army said in a statement.
The terse statement did not say whether Naboosh was wearing an explosives belt at the time of arrest.
The suspect hails from the same neighborhood as the two suicide bombers who carried out Saturday’s attack on the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood that killed at least nine people and wounded more than 30 others. The incident, the most serious breach of a government security plan that restored law and order to Tripoli, has raised fears of a return to the wave of suicide bombings that rocked the country last year as a fallout of the war in Syria.
The Army also announced the arrest of Ziad Hujeiri, a Lebanese, and Khaled Abdullah Badran, a Syrian, at the military checkpoint in Wadi Hmayed on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal.
The two men, who were driving a Kia vehicle with a Syrian license plate without legal ownership papers, attempted to flee after soldiers manning the checkpoint ordered them to stop, the statement said.
A senior military official said the crackdown on Islamist militants at the Roumieh Prison would pave the way for the government to implement a security plan in the northern Bekaa region, long plagued by kidnappings for ransom, killings, vendettas, drug smuggling and car thefts.
“The Roumieh Prison operation has dealt a crushing blow to terrorist groups,” he told The Daily Star.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri praised the security clampdown at Roumieh Prison, saying it boosted state authority.
“The Roumieh Prison operation is one of the effects of the dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah and has proved that the state really exists,” Berri was quoted by Ain al-Tineh visitors as saying.
He said the operation was carried out once a political decision had been secured. “The best thing about this operation is that it was implemented with secrecy. But the repercussions will continue through the security plan in the Bekaa,” Berri said. He added that not a single drop of blood was shed during the raid despite the prisoners’ claims to the contrary.
Earlier Tuesday, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk toured Roumieh Prison’s notorious Block B, which accommodated Islamist militants, in his first official visit to the facility after the raid.
“I am here to see the building and how it can go back to being a humanitarian prison that meets minimum standards in the quickest time possible,” he told Al-Jadeed TV.
“The visit serves to identify what measures should be taken to improve the prison.”
Machnouk said that plans to rehabilitate the building would be finalized in approximately three months, making way for prisoners to return to Block B.
Walking past the entrance of the building, Machnouk said the raid had made entering the prison simple.
“Had it not been for the operation it wouldn’t have been so easy to get in,” he added.
Machnouk’s visit came a day after the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch and its elite unit stormed Roumieh Prison, emptying out its Block B after intercepting calls between Islamist prisoners and members of the cell behind the suicide bombings in Tripoli. They transferred all 900 Islamists to Block D in an unprecedented nine-hour operation.
Bloc B is well-known for holding many suspected and convicted Islamist militants who manage to operate with relative impunity from inside the prison. The operation’s goal was first to separate prisoners in well-monitored cells and to end the previous chaos, characterized by inmates’ illicit access to cellphones and Internet.Television footage of the prison showed Roumieh in tatters: Graffiti was scribbled on the walls of the facility while black bags, plastic and glass bottles, rags and dirt littered the floors.
The floors of prisoners’ cells were covered by piles of clothing, overturned mattresses and broken refrigerators and microwaves.
Footage from the second floor of the building showed an inmate barber shop fully equipped with razors, scissors, electric trimmers and hats.
Inmates even had a small coffee shop with a stand displaying Nescafe packets and a small stove.
When asked about contraband seized during the raid, Machnouk said no weapons were found during the inspection.
After concluding the tour, Machnouk thanked all those who contributed to a fund set up for rehabilitating the facility. “We are a state that governs the people through the judiciary and puts them in a humanitarian prison to get their punishment,” he said.
A security source told The Daily Star that a large number of files that were seized during and after the operation revealed that inmates were connected to many terrorist attacks that have targeted Lebanon in the past.
Documents also revealed that some of the inmates were preparing for new attacks to be carried on Lebanese territory.
Also Tuesday, Machnouk chaired a meeting for the Central Security Council to discuss the implementation of the security plan in northeast Lebanon.
The decision to storm Roumieh Prison was widely praised by officials from across the political spectrum. Berri and top religious leaders telephoned Machnouk to congratulate him for the operation.
“The Roumieh Prison operation has confirmed that the Lebanese state is strong despite all the difficulties” Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt tweeted.
Praising the efforts of Machnouk and the ISF, Jumblatt said the raid was “another achievement for Lebanese security forces in countering terrorism.”
A senior Hezbollah official praised the dismantling of the militant operations room at Roumieh Prison. “The qualitative operation that happened at Roumieh Prison in dismantling the takfiri emirate is an achievement for the entire country and a severe blow to terrorist and takfiri dens,” Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, deputy head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, told a student graduation ceremony in the southern city of Tyre.
