Lebanon\'s interior minister highlights new security threat

Lebanon\'s Interior Minister Marwan Charbel Beirut – Georges Chahine Lebanon\'s interior minister Marwan Charbel has disclosed that security authorities are trying to track down a number of bomb-laden cars which could explode in and around Beirut at any moment. The minister highlighted the terror threat hours before a meeting Thursday with senior security and military officials on how to deal with car bomb attacks. It comes after investigators warned that more than 400 kg of explosives, including grenades and six Grad missiles had been planted in a vehicle seized by officers in the area of Naameh, southern Beirut, last week.
On Wednesday, Charbel briefed outgoing prime minister Najib ?Mikati about the current security situation in a meeting also attended by acting General Director of Internal Security Forces (ISF), General Ibrahim Basbous, and head of the information division, General Emad Othman.
Insiders told Arab Today that Mikati was informed that security authorities were trying to trace an explosives-laden car in Beirut.
Charbel assured the prime minister that the state\'s security institutions would leave no stone unturned in their search for suspects. Later, the minister told reporters that both the ISF and the Lebanese army are working together to tackle the security threats against Lebanon. ?
Charbel also urged residents of the Syrian-Lebanese border town of Arsal to cooperate with security bodies as they intensify their operation against armed groups who are entering Lebanon from Syrian territory.
The minister also said he could not guarantee a strong security presence in certain areas of Beirut, where Hezbollah controls some of suburbs. \"We are unable to work within the current political ?atmosphere in the country.
\"I\'m against Hezbollah going to Syria, but we shouldn\'t just blame them. Lebanese fighters from all factions are in Syria right now, and are interfering in the ongoing war,\" he said.?
On Wednesday afternoon, security sources said that an ISF officer arrested a Lebanese man after discovering ten Grad rockets in his Mercedes vehicle. The car was stopped in Ras Baalbek, north Bekaa with the driver reportedly travelling from (repeat word) the northern region of Beni Ghazi.
Security insiders told Arab Today that more and more rockets are being smuggled from Syria into Lebanon than the other way round. This shift has gone largely unnoticed, with the world\'s attention firmly fixed on the Syrian conflict.
The sources claim that Hezbollah has (tense) become far too entrenched in the Syrian war for the Shiite militant group to retreat and pull out.