(MENAFN- Arab News) BEIRUT: Security forces raided Lebanon's notorious Roumieh prison on Monday after discovering that inmates were linked to a deadly bomb attack last week security services said.

The Internal Security Forces (ISF) in a statement said an operation was underway at the prison's B block where many high-profile prisoners are held.

The block in Roumieh east of Beirut is known as a virtual no-go zone for security forces where prisoners have access to laptops phones and money.

The ISF said some prisoners had rioted starting fires to thwart the operation which follows a double suicide bomb attack Saturday in the Jabal Mohsen district of the northern city of Tripoli.

'The operation is taking place as planned' said the statement published by Lebanon's official National News Agency.

'The situation is under control and there are no casualties and the plan being implemented complements the overall security plan for Lebanon' it added.

'Roumieh prison is part of that plan especially after the discovery of ties between a number of prisoners and the terrorist blasts in the Jabal Mohsen area.'

The attack in often-tense Tripoli killed nine people in the neighborhood which is inhabited mostly by members of the Alawite sect to which Syrian President Bashar Assad belongs.

Fighting has regularly broken out between residents of the neighborhood who largely back Assad's regime and militants in neighboring Bab Al-Tebbaneh where residents back the Syrian uprising.