Three people were wounded on Monday night after an attack on two Lebanese Army centers in the Baalbek area, suspected to be a result of a deadly raid that took place earlier in the night.
Several gunmen opened fire on the centers, causing the Army to shoot back to defend themselves. One Army member and two civilians were injured due to stray bullets.
A statement by the Army suspected the attack to be a result of a raid that had been carried out in a nearby area several hours before the attack took place.
Members of the Lebanese Army conducted a raid on several houses near Baalbek on Monday night on charges of several different crimes, including car theft and drug trafficking.
In a statement, the Army said that it had come under “heavy fire” during a raid in the village of Knaysi in Bekaa, which provoked them to respond, killing two people during the ordeal, while the Army arrested several others at the scene. They also seized a great deal of drugs, weapons, ammunition, and stolen cars from the houses that were raided.
A video shared online taken by a bystander showed burning tires in the middle of the road as a means to avert traffic to another route during the raid.
The attacks later on in the evening at the Army centers were committed by “fugitives,” according to an Army statement. However, the identities of the attackers have not yet been confirmed.
This is the second raid to occur within the past two days, as the Internal Security Forces had conducted a raid earlier in the week and had arrested two men in connection with a network of drug trafficking that was carried out through the online video game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG, as we recently wrote about.