Lebanese troops deployed at 100 new points along the Syrian border in the northern Bekaa Valley, after reports that security forces had disrupted a major terrorist attack by about 2,000 Islamist fighters on Lebanese border villages. US officials reportedly tipped off Lebanese authorities about the planned militant operation, called “Laylat al-Qadr” (Night of Destiny), which sought to kidnap Lebanese troops and residents to be swapped for Al Qaeda, Al Nusrah Front, and Abdullah Azzam Brigades members held in Roumieh prison. The plot also called for massacres of Shiite villages in an effort to draw the area into a sectarian war. Security forces in southern Beirut arrested “Aa. H,” a “very dangerous fugitive”; assailants fired at police in an attempt to free him but failed. Soldiers discovered a pad for launching Katyusha rockets towards Israel. Coordination between Lebanese forces and Hezbollah along the Syrian border is said to be “weak.”
