The Army Command – Directorate of Orientation issued the following statement.

After a long process of security work and intelligence efforts over the years, a special unit from the Intelligence Directorate arrested on 19/5/2023 in the town of Deir Ammar – North, the citizen (T.M.), who is one of the prominent leaders of the Al-Qaeda organization and its founders in Lebanon. He played a prominent role in establishing the terrorist organization Fatah al-Islam.

The detainee had close ties to the organization’s leaders but disappeared from sight in 2007 after the Battle of Nahr al-Bared. He resurfaced and played a sensitive role after the emergence of ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, affiliating himself with the terrorist groups that were active in northern Lebanon. He facilitated the sheltering of one of their most dangerous leaders after the Battle of Tripoli in 2014 when these groups united to fight the Lebanese Army in the neighborhoods of Tripoli and the town of Bhanin.