The so-called Free Sunnis of Baalbek Brigade slammed on Friday the security plan implemented by “the non-Lebanese army” in the northern city of Tripoli, considering that the military raids are violating the sanctity of Muslim homes.

“The army's mice are not being considerate of the sanctity of the Muslim homes and the presence of women in them,” the brigade said via Twitter.

The Lebanese army will enforce in the upcoming hours a security plan in the eastern Bekaa valley following the successful implementation of the plan in the northern city of Tripoli.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Friday, the military will deploy in northern Bekaa, in particular, on the outskirts of Arsal and the neighboring villages such as Labweh, Hermel and al-Qassr.

The army on Thursday raided several neighborhoods in the northern city of Tripoli in search of fugitives, as part of the security plan that troops started implementing earlier this week to end the state unrest and instability in the North.

The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau also carried out raids in the northern Akkar town of Halba, and succeeded in arresting Sheikh Musheer Khodr, who is linked to radical cleric Omar Bakri, radio Voice of Lebanon (93.3) said.

Gunmen cheerfully shared coffee and cigarettes with men they have tried to kill with assault rifles, grenades and mortars. Women on balconies hurled rice to celebrate. Men chanted giddily to welcome soldiers deploying to the streets of the northern city of Tripoli.

In a day as joyful as it was unlikely, weary residents of two Tripoli neighborhoods on Wednesday celebrated as hundreds of Lebanese soldiers deployed in the most determined plan yet by the government to stabilize an area that for the past year has been increasingly drawn into the civil war in neighboring Syria.

The military institution announced on Wednesday arresting 33 people in the northern city of Tripoli, as troops continued to implement the security plan in the North.

"The army has arrested 33 people, including 14 Syrians,” the military institution said in an evening communique.

Arab Democratic Party politburo chief Rifaat Eid took refuge in the southern suburbs of Beirut before leaving the country to Syria, media reports said on Wednesday.

"Rifaat Eid was transferred in a convoy from (the northern neighborhood) of Jabal Mohsen to the Sfeir region in southern Beirut,” LBCI television said.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi on Wednesday announced that his political camp is seeking “stronger” communication with Hizbullah in a bid to “protect the country,” noting that he might visit the Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhoods amid the security plan that is being implemented in Tripoli.

“The implementation of the security plan in Tripoli is very comforting,” Rifi said as he entered a cabinet session in the afternoon, stressing that “Tripoli is larger than Ashraf Rifi and all the figures.”

The March 14 General Secretariat hailed on Wednesday the implementation of the security plan in Tripoli, hoping that it will put an end to the suffering in the northern city.

It hoped after its weekly meeting that the army and security forces will arrest all the wanted suspects, regardless of their affiliations, especially those behind the twin bombings of the Tawqa and al-Salam Mosques in August 2013.

President Michel Suleiman called on Wednesday for the election of a strong head of state, who pledges full loyalty to Lebanon.

“The new president should be strong, not weak… and consensual if possible or should belong to a certain political camp and be fully loyal to Lebanon,” Suleiman said during a ceremony at Baabda Palace.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat voiced surprise Tuesday that some political parties had “forewarned” the leaders of the fighting frontiers in Tripoli and advised them to escape ahead of the security plan that got underway earlier in the day.

“In a magical way ... and after the genius, high-ranking political and security officials obtained miraculous powers, the implementation of the Tripoli security plan got underway, after the city was battered with 20 rounds of fighting,” Jumblat said in a statement.