Lebanon police raid Syrian regime cell, arrest 7

Security forces in Lebanon arrested a Baath Party cell that allegedly kidnapped Syrian rebels and handed them over to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper reported Friday.

Internal Security Forces (ISFs) arrested seven people following a raid on a house that reportedly belonged to Majed Mansour, a Baath Party official in the Bekaa Valley village of Gaza.

However, Mansour managed to escape, the Lebanese daily reported.

The men were accused of kidnapping Syrians and handing them over to forces loyal to Assad.

They have been in contact with an official with an intelligence branch of Syria’s Baath Party active during Syria’s involvement in Lebanon between 1990 and 2005, a security source told the Daily Star.

Lebanese Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi praised the police, adding that such an achievement would restore hope in the country’s security agencies.

"I congratulate the Intelligence Branch on the new achievement of arresting a cell belonging to the Syrian regime [that was] responsible for kidnapping Syrian opposition members,” Rifi said in a statement.

"What the Information Branch has done gives hope to the Lebanese that their security and military institutions are capable of protecting them and that the state is capable of protecting Lebanon from foreign dangers.”

“This is only an incentive to return to the state and stay away from self-security measures that only put Lebanon in the danger zone,” he was quoted as saying.