Security forces arrested Mohammad Qassam and seven aides, all Syrians, in a refugee camp in Arsal; Qassam is accused of heading an al Qaeda group that rigs cars with explosives and sends them into Lebanon. Masked gunmen shot a Fatah-linked Sunni sheikh in the Ain el Hilweh refugee camp in Sidon. Hezbollah has turned over checkpoints in the north to the military as part of a new security plan; wanted militants are said to have fled, however. Hezbollah’s deputy leader predicted that the Assad regime in Syria will weather the conflict, and said the West should face that “reality.”
