Security authorities discovered explosives hidden in buckets of cheese smuggled into Lebanon foiling Islamic State (IS) plans to attack Christians.
IS jihadis had intended to target places of worship and gatherings of Christians to “cause chaos” during Lebanon’s parliamentary elections earlier this year.
The terrorist plot, which was planned in rebel-held Idlib, northern Syria, was uncovered during a ten-month Lebanese police surveillance operation, codenamed “Lethal Cheese”, the country’s caretaker interior minister said on 10 December.
Lebanon is the only Arab state that is not officially Muslim and has the highest proportion of Christians of any country in the Middle East, although this is well below 50%. The huge influx of refugees fleeing the war in Syria, the majority of whom are Sunni Muslims, now comprise a quarter of Lebanon’s population.
