Hasan LakkisHussein Dakroub| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army Thursday defused a car rigged with 100 kilograms of explosives on the outskirts of the Bekaa town of Arsal, which a senior military official said was meant to target a military post in the area.
The incident revived bitter memories of the spate of car bombings that struck Lebanon last year and early this year and which was linked to the war in Syria.
“Most probably, the car bomb was intended to target the Army post in Ain Shaab in Arsal,” a senior military official told The Daily Star.
The military said in a statement that soldiers had grown suspicious of a white Kia vehicle with a Syrian license plate parked on a side road in the Ain Shaab neighborhood in Arsal.
An Army unit cordoned off the area and inspected the vehicle, which contained 100 kilograms of explosive materials packed in a metal box and tied to wires and electric detonators, ready for detonation.
An Army bomb expert arrived at the scene and defused the bomb. An investigation has been launched into the incident.
The precarious security situation in Arsal and the case of the soldiers and policemen still held hostage by militants dominated a Cabinet session Thursday night, with March 8 and March 14 ministers sparring over the verbal attacks on the Army.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam told the ministers that he was continuing negotiations with Qatar and Turkey in an attempt to secure the release of the kidnapped soldiers, Information Minister Ramzi Joreige said after the six-hour session.
“There is some progress in this respect, but nothing can guarantee reaching a satisfactory result soon,” Salam said.
Recalling a meeting of a ministerial committee tasked with winning the freedom of the captured soldiers, Salam said the Army was ready “to confront any aggression on Arsal or any other area.”
March 8 ministers brought up Future MP Khaled Daher’s statement, in which he said that the Army was being used as a tool against the Sunnis and Christians in Lebanon, sources told The Daily Star.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk dismissed Daher’s statement. “We do not adopt his [Daher’s] statement and he does not represent the Future Movement’s viewpoint,” said Machnouk, who is also a Future MP.
Arsal was the scene last month of five days of fierce clashes between the Army and militants from ISIS and the Nusra Front, who overran the town. It was the most serious spillover so far of the war in Syria into Lebanese territory.
The militants are still holding at least 22 of the soldiers and policemen who were taken hostage during the battles in Arsal. ISIS has beheaded two soldiers, while the Nusra Front has released seven of the captured men.
Salam will head a ministerial delegation to Doha Sunday for talks with Qatar’s emir and premier on the hostage crisis.
Qatar became involved in the hostage crisis last week when it announced it would be carrying out negotiations between the Lebanese state and the militant groups.
The Qatari delegation has met with ISIS and the Nusra Front commanders and prepared a list of demands to submit to the Lebanese government. ISIS and the Nusra Front have been demanding the release of Islamist militants held in Roumieh prison in exchange for the captured soldiers and policemen. The government has refused to engage in any kind of swap.
Meanwhile, two men kidnapped by gunmen last week from Arsal have been released in a Hezbollah-mediated operation, security sources said.
The sources told The Daily Star that Abdullah al-Breidy and Hasan al-Fliti were handed over to Rida al-Masri in the village of Hourtaala in Baalbek Thursday morning. Masri, in turn, handed the pair over to General Security personnel.
Gunmen belonging to the Masri family last Sunday abducted Breidy and Fliti, demanding the release of one of their relatives, who is among the at least 22 Lebanese soldiers and policemen being held captive by ISIS and Nusra Front militants.
However, the fate of Marwan Hujeiri, a third Arsal resident who was also kidnapped last week, remained unknown.
