Lebanese army says seized arms depot in Beirut suburbs

The Lebanese army announced on Friday that it seized a large number of arms and ammunition from a depot in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, adding that it arrested one person.

The army conducted “a special security operation after close monitoring of the transportation and trade of weapons,” it said in a statement, adding that it raided an “arms depot in the Msharrafieh area of the southern suburbs.”

It said it seized a “large number of war arms and munitions” and arrested one person who is currently under investigation.
The statement made no mention of who the arms belonged to.

Beirut’s southern suburbs are a key Hezbollah stronghold and faced intense bombing and destruction during the Iran-backed group’s last two wars with Israel.

The army rarely announces such raids in the southern suburbs.

On October 10, Lebanese authorities arrested two suspected Hezbollah members accused of secretly transporting a half-tonne cargo of explosives, a judicial source said at the time.

Based on initial investigations, one of the suspects was found to be the son of a Hezbollah official and the other was also a member of the group, according to the source.

On October 30, a Lebanese military court charged 13 people for their alleged involvement in shipping the half-tonne cargo of explosives to Hezbollah, a judicial source said.

In June, Lebanon and Israel signed a framework agreement which included the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from territories it occupies in the south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the area.