Lebanese Army arrests 2 Fatah al-Islam operatives

The Lebanese Army Intelligence services have arrested two men for having ties to the Islamist armed group Fatah al-Islam. Security sources have told Arabstoday that one of the men is a leading figure in the group, who received direct orders from the group's leader Osama al-Shehabi. Khalil Ahmed al-Boubou, who was jailed for five years after a 2006 attack on the Lebanese army at the Fakhreddine Barracks, was recently arrested for helping an Algerian Fatah al-Islam militant escape Roumieh prison. Al-Boubou admitted receiving direct orders from al-Shehabi, who was named Fatah al-Islam leader after the Lebanese army killed the Islamist group's former head Abdelrahman Awad in an ambush in the eastern town of Chtaura last year. Sources say al-Shehabi oversaw the assassination attempt of Palestinian Armed Struggle chief Mahmoud Issa, who was known as al-Lino, at the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh. Another man identified as Ali Hajer and known as Abou Jaafar was also arrested for belonging to Fatah al-Islam and helping Islamists cross to Syria to fight the Syrian regime.