BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 24 (UPI) — A Syrian member of the Islamic State has been arrested in Lebanon after being tasked by the terrorist group with assassinating Pope Leo XIV during his visit to the country last year, Lebanese security confirmed Thursday.
The IS member, who was not identified, was arrested by Lebanese Army Intelligence in northern Lebanon after being placed under close surveillance.
The detainee, who entered Lebanon illegally and maintained contacts with senior ISIS leaders in Syria, told investigators he had been assigned to assassinate the holy pontiff during his Nov. 30-Dec. 2 visit to Lebanon — his first official trip abroad.
“He intended to carry out the operation during the pope’s visit and had begun preparing for it, but he did not reach the execution stage,” a security source told UPI. “Circumstances did not allow him to do so.”
The Lebanese Army adopted tight security measures for the pope’s packed schedule at the time, which included meetings with the country’s top officials and Catholic patriarchs, visits to monasteries and shrines, a meeting with some 12,000 young people and a holy mass. The activities were held at different locations across the country.
The detained IS operative, who was reportedly also tasked with carrying out operations aimed at destabilizing Lebanon’s security, was expected to face charges of belonging to a terrorist group, planning terrorist operations and attempting to assassinate an international religious figure, according to media reports.
The security source said the “danger” of more ISIS operatives in Lebanon “exists,” but there is “security control.”
“Some people from ISIS or other groups holding such beliefs constitute dormant cells, but we are always on alert,” he said.
After the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011, Lebanon witnessed a wave of suicide bombings and attacks involving booby-trapped cars carried out by those groups in crowded residential areas, including Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of Iran-backed Hezbollah.
While the Islamic State never established a foothold in Lebanon, Lebanese Army Intelligence has arrested several senior ISIS operatives and other members of the group in recent years.
As part of its efforts to confront extremist groups, the Lebanese Army fought a three-month battle in 2007 against Fatah al-Islam, an al-Qaeda-inspired Sunni Islamist group, in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli.
The Army eventually regained control of the camp after heavy fighting that left 171 soldiers dead and hundreds more wounded.