Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam pledged to identify everyone behind an explosives shipment intercepted on its way toward Beirut. His announcement follows last week’s seizure of a truck carrying material including C-4. Drivers have been referred to the authorities, while the investigation will pursue those who ordered the transport and its intended purpose. An organisational link has not yet been established.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam pledged firm action on 12 October following the interception of a shipment of explosives bound for Greater Beirut. He said everyone involved in the transport would be pursued. The material included C-4, a powerful explosive that Salam linked to public concern over Lebanon’s history of political assassinations.[1], [2]
The truck was stopped last week at Dahr al-Baidar, a checkpoint in Lebanon, while travelling from the country’s Bekaa region toward Beirut. Salam praised the security forces and said the drivers had been referred to the competent authorities. He promised to identify those who gave the orders and establish their aims before sending the case to the judiciary. Lebanon’s Information Ministry published his statement following a cabinet meeting.[1]
Unnamed judicial officials told AP that two people had been detained and that they said they were instructed to transport the material from near Baalbek, a town in eastern Lebanon, to Beirut. These remain investigative allegations. Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed and political movement, declined to comment. Salam’s statement referred to hundreds of kilograms of explosives; no completed finding established an organisational link or the intended final use.[1]
