The capture of two suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS could help dismantle terror networks in Lebanon.
The two suspects, identified as cousins Omar and Bilal Mikati, were arrested Tuesday in the town of Hrabta in the Bekaa Valley.
According to the Daily Star, military intelligence received confirmation from sources that the two suspects were travelling to the Bekaa Valley with fake IDs and were able to station agents at the Army checkpoint in Hrabta in advance.
Military intelligence had monitored the cousins' movements between the Syrian Qalamoun region and the Lebanese town of Arsal, where they were reportedly meeting with a "well known religious figure."
Lebanese forces had already formulated a series of scenarios for the cousins' arrest before they received confirmation of their trip to the Bekaa Valley.
Upon interrogation, the military told the Daily Star, the Mikati cousins gave them information on dormant terrorist organisations operating in Lebanon. They were afterwards transferred to the headquarters of military intelligence in Yarze.
The information from the two suspects has already led to the arrest of a suspected terrorist in Syria, according to Lebanese forces.
The Daily Star said that Bilal Mikati is believed to have been behind the beheading of Ali al-Sayyed, a sergeant in the Lebanese Armed Forces who was captured by the Islamic State with three other soldiers and a police officer in August after hostilities erupted between the Lebanese military and the militants in Arsal.
The arrest comes after the capture of "key ISIS commander" Hassan Ghorli, or Abu Hareth al-Ansari, in Hasbaya in West Bekaa Valley earlier this month. Al-Hansari was undergoing treatment in Hasbaya's Al-Manar Hospital for wounds sustained during a battle between militant groups in late February on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek.
Al-Hansari commanded one of the groups involved in the fighting in Arsal and claimed to have pledged allegiance to ISIS. However, a militant told Daily Star that Al-Hansari is affiliated with al-Qaeda's Al Nusra front and not ISIS.
