Report: International Warning on Terrorist Sleeper Cell Attacks

Lebanese security agencies have been warned by foreign officials that sleeper terrorist cells have received instructions to carry out attacks in Lebanon, the Kuwaiti daily al-Seyassah reported on Monday.

The newspaper said top officials, who have lately visited Lebanon, urged the agencies to be on high alert to thwart any possible attack by the cells that are linked to either the Islamic State group or al-Nusra Front.

The officials advised the security apparatuses to closely monitor Palestinian refugee camps and encampments for displaced Syrians after receiving reports that terrorist groups in the shantytowns would coordinate with the sleeper cells to carry out bombings.

Last week, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini visited Lebanon. Her trip was followed by a two-day visit made by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon who toured the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared and a Syrian encampment in Dalhamyeh in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Lebanon is home to around half a million Palestinian refugees. With a population of 4.5 million people, the country now also shelters more than 1 million registered Syrian refugees.

G.K.

M.T.