BEIRUT — At least four Lebanese soldiers were killed and one wounded Monday in an ambush that security officials blamed on a local drug mafia.
Local media reports put the number of dead at five.
Lebanese officials said gunmen, using small arms and a rocket-propelled grenade, fired on an army truck in an urban area of the Bekaa Valley city of Baalbek. Panicked residents hid in their homes and paramedics rushed to remove the wounded.
Officials say the attack was an act of revenge for the March 27 killing at an army checkpoint of a patriarch of the Jaafar clan, which is allegedly heavily involved in the trafficking of hashish and heroin. By early evening, soldiers raided the homes of the clan’s late patriarch, according to local media.
The Jaafar clan is infamous in the country’s law-enforcement circles and known for holding grudges.
Two weeks ago, Lebanese soldiers shot and killed alleged drug baron Ali Abbas Jaafar and an aide after they allegedly refused to stop at an army checkpoint.
Jaafar was wanted on 172 outstanding warrants to face charges of drug trafficking and assault, according to an army statement issued then.
