Army says twin IS terror plots foiled in Lebanon

The Lebanese flag flies on top of the Government House to pay respect for victims killed in the village of Qaa attacks early Monday morning in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 28, 2016. A series of suicide bombings and other attacks, including one outside a church, rocked a mainly Christian Lebanese village near the Syrian border, killing many people and wounding tens, officials and witnesses said. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) (The Associated Press)

Lebanese army soldiers from the special forces unit patrol Qaa, a predominantly Lebanese Christian village near the Syrian border were suicide bombers blow themselves among civilians on Monday, eastern Lebanon, Tuesday, June 28, 2016. Lebanese troops detained 103 Syrians for illegal entry into the country, in a security sweep on Tuesday, a day after a series of deadly bombings struck a village near the border with Syria, the military said. The unprecedented attacks nine explosions in all, eight of them suicide bombings triggered fear and panic among residents of Qaa village and a deepening sense of foreboding in Lebanon, which has grappled for over five years with spillovers from neighboring Syria's civil war. (AP Photo) (The Associated Press)

BEIRUT – The Lebanese army says it has foiled two terror plots by the Islamic State group targeting residential and tourist sites in the country.

The army said in a statement released Thursday that it had arrested five suspects linked to the plots, among them the alleged mastermind. It did not say where or when the suspects were stopped.

The country has been on high alert since nine bombs exploded in the eastern border village of Qaa on Monday, killing five residents. Eight were detonated by suicide bombers. No group claimed responsibility.

Violence from the neighboring war in Syria has spilled into Lebanon's border regions. IS and Al-Qaida militants briefly seized the town of Arsal in 2014, before security forces pushed them to the frontier, where they remain now.