Lebanese army seizes arms depot in Beirut suburbs

The Lebanese army said Friday it seized a large number of weapons and ammunition from an arms depot in Beirut's southern suburbs and arrested one person.

The army said it carried out a special security operation after monitoring weapons transport and trade, then raided a depot in the Msharrafieh area. The detained person is under investigation, it said.

The army did not identify who owned the weapons. Beirut's southern suburbs are a key Hezbollah stronghold and were bombed during the Iran-backed group's last two wars with Israel.

Lebanese authorities arrested two suspected Hezbollah members on October 10 over the alleged secret transport of a half-tonne cargo of explosives, a judicial source told AFP at the time. On October 30, a Lebanese military court charged 13 people over alleged involvement in shipping the explosives to Hezbollah, a judicial source told AFP.

In June, Lebanon and Israel signed a framework agreement that included Hezbollah's disarmament, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from territories it occupies in southern Lebanon and Lebanese army deployment to the area.