Lebanese authorities have thwarted attempts by members of the Islamic State group to carry out three attacks near the capital Beirut that would have inflicted a large number of civilian casualties, the interior minister said Wednesday.
Bassam Mawlawi said the would-be attackers, two of whom were detained earlier this month, are all Palestinians who had been recruiting young men to carry out suicide attacks with explosive belts in the predominantly Shiite southern suburbs of Beirut — a stronghold of the militant Hezbollah group.
