Five people arrested by ISF after a coffee was smashed and a security guard was killed in Koura. (Credit: ISF)
BEIRUT — The Internal Security Forces (ISF) announced on Sunday that last month it arrested four people suspected of smashing up a coffee shop and killing its security guard in the village of Dahr al-Ain (Koura district). The security body also arrested a fifth person suspected of having provided a gun and bike used in the attack.
According to the ISF's statement, the two Syrian nationals, identified by the initials M.T. and B.A., and two Lebanese nationals, identified as K.M. and B.K., arrested admitted to participation in the assault on the coffee shop on May 27, saying it was motivated by one of the shop's owners having earlier beaten a Syrian worker — an attack that was reportedly shared via a video posted on social media. The statement adds that all four suspects are under 23 years of age.
"At dawn on [May 27] in Dahr al-Ain, two masked unknown persons entered a cafe and smashed it, and when the security guard tried to stop them, [K.M.] pulled a gun and fired a bullet, as a result of which the guard was injured in his stomach and died from his wound," the ISF statement reads. The two others provided the others with "protection and support" during the incident, the statement continues.
"On [May 28], the [Information Division of the ISF] arrested [three of the suspects] in Mina and the last in the Abu Samra area [in the city of Tripoli] on board a green-colored tuk-tuk that was seized," the ISF adds.
According to the ISF, K.M. later admitted that he borrowed the gun and a bike used during the assault from his Lebanese friend, identified as A.S. The ISF says it later arrested A.S. in the Mina area. The ISF adds that a gun and bike were seized at A.S.'s home, and the security body also claims that A.S. admitted he lent the gun and bike to K.M. "without knowing the purpose of their use."