Lebanese Intelligence Agency Says Detained 3 Suspects After Minister Convoy Attack

BEIRUT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd July, 2019) Lebanon's General Security Directorate has detained three suspects as part of a probe into the attack on a convoy of Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Saleh Gharib, the intelligence agency's chief Abbas Ibrahim said on Tuesday.

"General Security Directorate patrols detained three wanted suspects in the Beit ed-Dine area. We care about principle, not quantity ... All that is happening is the detention of those involved in the incident in accordance with law," Ibrahim told the NBN broadcaster.

On Sunday evening, a shootout broke out in the Mount Lebanon governorate between the guards of Gharib of the Druze Lebanese Democratic Party and supporters of rival Druze Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), led by Walid Jumblatt. Gharib has blamed the PSP for the incident that left two of his bodyguards killed.

The PSP, in turn, said that it was the minister's convoy that provoked the conflict.

The deadly shootout occurred during the planned visit of Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, the leader of the largest Maronite Free Patriotic Movement party and Jumblatt's rival, to the region. PSP proponents condemned Bassil's planned trip to the Druze-inhabited mountainous areas as provocative. In protest, they blocked roads in the region, provoking clashes with the military and police dispatched to the scene. The foreign minister finally had to cancel his visit.

Following the attack on the minister's convoy, Lebanese Democratic Party activists, in turn, blocked main highways linking Beirut to southern Lebanon and Beqaa Valley, demanding that those responsible be arrested.