BEIRUT (AP) — Security forces have arrested the main suspect in the 2011 kidnapping of seven Estonian tourists and the more recent abduction of a Lebanese citizen that led to a wave of tit-for-tat kidnappings in areas near the Syrian border, police officials said Thursday.

The officials said Hussein Hojeiri was detained two days ago in the eastern Bekaa Valley. They said he confessed to carrying out the 2011 kidnapping, purportedly on the orders of an Iraqi al-Qaida figure. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.