A military court in Lebanon has charged five individuals with training and forming groups to carry out attacks in Syria. This action took place on Thursday as part of the Lebanese authorities' efforts to target the remnants of the ousted Bashar Assad regime.
Details of the Charges
The five individuals, which include three Syrian citizens and two Lebanese citizens, were arrested earlier this month on charges of connections to a cross-border network linked to Hezbollah by Lebanese authorities. According to a judicial official, this network is accused of smuggling individuals from Syria to Lebanon and training them in a camp in the Bekaa region.
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Hezbollah's Role and Syrian Officers
The judicial official also stated that Judge Claude Ghanem has charged these five defendants with forming a criminal gang and receiving training in military weapons, explosives, snipers, and the use of drones for carrying out terrorist acts on the Syrian coasts. Meanwhile, nine other individuals have also been charged in absentia with the same accusations.
The defendants revealed in their initial interrogations that this network has transferred over 40 members of Assad's forces from the Syrian coasts through illegal crossings into Lebanon. Among the defendants is Colonel Manaf Ali Safi, a Syrian intelligence officer who was responsible for one of the security branches of the former Syrian regime.
These individuals also confessed that Hezbollah operatives, under the guidance of a person named Haj Ali, who, according to local reports, was responsible for the logistics and accommodation of these individuals in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Zahle in the east, and Harat Sidon in the south, trained them. He is also accused of paying for the training costs through an association linked to Hezbollah.
According to judicial sources, this network has operated under the leadership of General Mohammad Jaber, the former commander of the Syrian Army's desert brigade, who is now residing in Moscow.
The situation in Syria, especially in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus, became highly volatile in March 2025, with over 1,400 people losing their lives in the unrest. This unrest began after the Syrian government claimed that its forces were attacked by militias affiliated with the former Assad regime.
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