Lebanon Confirms Arrests of Japanese Red Army Suspects

Lebanon announced Tuesday that it arrested up to six members of the Japanese Red Army, a militant group that carried out high-profile hijackings and attacks in the 1970s. The six suspects were hiding out in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Among those arrested was Kozo Okamoto, 49, one of three Red Army members who allegedly carried out a May 1972 grenade and machine-gun attack on Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, according to news reports from Lebanon and Japan. The attack killed 26 people.

The arrests, carried out Saturday, raised hopes among some Western diplomats that Lebanon and Syria may be moving to clean up the Bekaa Valley’s image as a crossroads of global terrorism. They appeared to mark a policy change for both countries, since Syria dominates Lebanese decision-making.

In particular, Syria controls the Bekaa, a center of training and operations for Lebanese and foreign terrorists.

Japanese media named four of the other suspects as Kazuo Tohira, 44; Hisashi Matsuda, 48; Mariko Yamamoto, 56; and Masao Adachi, 57.

Japanese diplomats met Tuesday with Lebanon’s prosecutor general. In Tokyo, the government said it will send a team to Lebanon to identify the captives and seek their extradition if they turn out to belong to the group, according to wire service reports.