Lebanon recruits IS leader to uncover terrorist plots

BEIRUT, Jan 19 (KUNA) -- Lebanon's Internal Security Forces last year used a leader from the so-called Islamic State (IS) to gather information on the groupآ’s domestic terror plots, said Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk.
The forces' Information Branch recruited the high-level IS official Abu Jaafar Al-Iraqi for a period of five months in 2017, discovering over ten plots the group had planned to execute in Lebanon, Machnouk said in a press conference to reveal terminating a new plotted terrorist attack in the country on Friday.
Since the terrorist explosion in Bourj el-Barajneh in November 2015, the Lebanese authorities had discovered an active IS cell, recruiting new terrorists and launching attacks, he added.
"This security ability that we have demonstrated assures all Lebanese and Arabs and others who want to come to Lebanon that the security situation is under control to the highest degree," the minister said.
The minister also noted that many arrests had been made in Lebanon due to information gathered from Al-Iraqi, including that of a Lebanese IS financier. He added that IS members and Al-Iraqi's family had no idea he was arrested or was assisting the Lebanese army in the process. (end) ayb.ag