Lebanese Army soldiers (Credit: AFP/File photo)
BEIRUT — The Lebanese Army found on Thursday the body of an Iraqi citizen in Bqaatouta, Keserwan district, according to a statement released by the army.
“On Dec. 28, the Intelligence Directorate, after a series of monitoring and tracking operations, was able to find the body of the Iraqi citizen in the outskirts of the town of Bqaatouta where a group of people of different nationalities had buried it," the army's statement reads. "The man had arrived in Lebanon ... on Dec. 4 and was lured, killed, and his body was hidden by the aforementioned group."
The army added that investigations are currently underway.
State-run National News Agency (NNA) previously reported that the Internal Security Forces (ISF) found the body of the tourist whose full name has been withheld, but whose initials are A.K., who came from Iraq to Lebanon with three other people and had been missing for ten days. NNA also reported that the deceased was born in 1981.
The initial NNA report, which contradicts the latest updates from the Lebanese Army, said that after a massive search operation lasting for four days using police dogs in valleys, orchards and ponds, the ISF had found the body of the Iraqi tourist "thrown on a road" in the village of Bqaatouta.