The police station in the locality of Haicheh in the Wadi Khaled region, northern Lebanon, Aug.14, 2023. (Courtesy of: Michel Hallak)
BEIRUT — An armed man opened fire Sunday evening after forcibly entering a police station in the border village of Haicheh in Wadi Khaled, Akkar governorate, a security source and a local witness told L'Orient-Le Jour.
According to the security source, the man, a Syrian national, broke into the station and opened fire on two policemen before locking them in a room and freeing a prisoner. The source added that the perpetrator had five accomplices — both Lebanese and Syrian nationals among them — waiting outside on mopeds.
No fatalities or injuries have been reported as a result of the incident.
According to the sources L'Orient-Le Jour spoke to, a total of three people being held at the police station managed to escape during the incident, but one of these escapees surrendered to the police later Sunday night. However, when contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, a Lebanese Army source reported that five detainees had escaped.
According to the security source, one of the fugitives, who is from the village of Mchata Hamoud, surrendered to the police and is now back at the Haicheh police station. Local reports indicate that the other escapees fled to Syria.
The Lebanese Army source's assessment is slightly different. They said that out of five escapees, two had been re-arrested, while they suspect the other three of fleeing to Syria.
The security source that L'Orient-Le Jour spoke to said that the prisoner freed by the man who broke into the police station is thought to have been facing charges related to smuggling. The source added that the two other escapees are suspected of involvement in drug trafficking and involvement in both drug and human trafficking, respectively.
A spokesman for the Internal Security Forces (ISF) could not be immediately reached for comment on the situation.
Mohammad Ismail, Haicheh's municipal council chairman, told our local correspondent that even "in the midst of the [1990-75] Civil War, the region never saw such an incident. The local authorities are assisting the security bodies and trying to find the detainees who have fled."
The prison break in Wadi Khaled comes as Lebanon's dire socio-economic and financial collapse, now in its fourth year, continues to deepen. The crisis has worsened conditions in prisons and detention centers, where overcrowding and a lack of medical care regularly provoke riots.
Reporting contributed by Michel Hallak