Lebanon charges 14 over alleged Syria attack plot

Lebanon's military court has charged 14 Lebanese and Syrian people over an alleged network trained to carry out attacks on Syria's coast, a judicial official said Thursday.

The official, speaking anonymously, said the accused included five detainees, a Hezbollah member and Manaf Ali Safi, a Syrian intelligence officer under former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. The group has denied the allegation.

The charges include forming a criminal gang and receiving training in military weapons, explosives, sniper rifles and drone operation, with the aim of carrying out terrorist acts on the Syrian coast, the official said.

Lebanese authorities arrested a group earlier this month that allegedly planned attacks against forces of Syria's new government and received training from Iran-backed Hezbollah.

According to the judicial official, Safi mentioned bringing more than 40 officers and members of Assad's remnants from the Syrian coast into Lebanon through illegal northern border crossings. The official also alleged that a Hezbollah official who is in hiding oversaw the smuggling and training of network members in eastern Lebanon.

The official said the alleged network is led by a former Syrian army major general close to Assad who is now based in Moscow.

Assad was ousted in 2024. Syria's coast, a heartland of the Alawite minority from which Assad hails, was the scene of sectarian massacres last year that a national commission of inquiry said left at least 1,426 people dead.