BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Army chief vowed Wednesday to uproot terrorism from the country, hours after experts dismantled a 10-kilogram explosive device near a military base in the northern city of Tripoli, in the latest security incident to jolt the country in as many days.
Addressing Arab and foreign military attaches and representatives of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon at his office in Yarze on the occasion of the New Year, Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi thanked Lebanon’s allies for helping the country face security challenges, especially in the battle against Islamist militants seeking to destabilize the country.
“Today, we reiterate what we had confirmed to you before which is our determination to continue fighting terrorism with full force and firmness until we eradicate its roots from our country,” Kahwagi said.
In addition to Parliament’s failure to elect a new president, the socioeconomic problems plaguing Lebanon, including the influx of about 1.5 million Syrian refugees into its territory, he said the Lebanese Army faced “an unprecedented ferocious assault by terrorist organizations” in the northeastern town of Arsal and in the north last year.
“But the Army was up to the responsibilities laid on its shoulder, thwarting with the blood of its martyrs a scheme by those terrorists which was aimed, according to confessions by detained [jihadi] leaders, at setting up an emirate of darkness stretching from the eastern border to the sea,” Kahwagi said.
“Consequently, the Army had prevented the rekindling of strife in the country and exposing the unity of the Lebanese to enormous dangers,” he added.
He said the case of 25 soldiers and policemen still held hostage by ISIS and the Nusra Front on the outskirts of Arsal since August was a top priority for the Army. “We will not spare any efforts or means to liberate them and secure their return to their institution and families,” he added.
“We look with all due respect and appreciation to your countries for standing on the side of the Army in the battle against terrorism and for being keen on Lebanon’s unity and stability in this critical stage of its history,” Kahwagi said.His remarks come as the Army is still locked in an open battle against ISIS and Nusra Front militants who briefly overran Arsal in August after deadly fighting with Lebanese troops, in the most serious spillover of the Syrian war into Lebanese territory.
Since the Arsal fighting, the Army has clashed several times with the militants entrenched on Arsal’s rugged mountains. The jihadis have killed several soldiers in ambushes near Arsal. The Army also deployed heavily in Tripoli in October, crushing Islamist militants linked to ISIS and the Nusra Front.
In his speech, Kahwagi said last year’s $3 billion Saudi gift to buy French arms for Lebanon’s military would have “a great impact in bolstering the Army’s capability to decide the battle [against terrorism] in Lebanon’s favor.”
The Army chief also vowed continued cooperation and coordination with UNIFIL to deal with Israel’s attacks and violations of Lebanese territories, preserve stability in the region and respect U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.
Earlier Wednesday, a military expert safely dismantled a 10-kg improvised explosive device discovered near an Army base in Tripoli.
The expert dismantled the device – a gas cylinder containing 10 kilograms of explosives – placed on the side of the main Majdlaya-Qalaa road and primed for detonation, the Army said in a statement. It added that a 15-meter electric wire was also connected to the IED.
The discovery of the explosive device came two days after security forces raided the notorious Roumieh Prison in an unprecedented operation that dismantled Islamist militants’ operations room and transferred them to a more tightly controlled jail block. The raid came after information was gathered that some inmates had been in contact with two suicide bombers who detonated themselves in Tripoli last week.
Wednesday’s discovery also came a day after the Army arrested in Tripoli a Lebanese man suspected of plotting a suicide attack.
The arrest of the suspected would-be suicide bomber came days after a twin suicide bombing targeted a crowded cafe in Tripoli killing at least nine people and wounding more than 30 others, in an incident that rekindled fears of a return to the wave of suicide bombings that rocked the country last year as a fallout of the war in Syria.
A delegation of European Union ambassadors met Prime Minister Tammam Salam, voicing support for the raid on Roumieh Prison and condemning the Tripoli bombings.
“We commend the security operation led by the Internal Security Forces and the Lebanese Army in Roumieh Prison,” EU Ambassador to Lebanon Angelina Eichhorst told reporters after the meeting.
Meanwhile, the families of Islamist inmates in Roumieh Prison called for the authorities to grant them permission to visit their relatives following the raid on the prison’s Block B.
“The families have been trying for several days to visit their sons and to be assured of their conditions following reports purporting that some had been injured, while some media spoke of deaths among them,” the relatives said in a statement. “The last attempt [to visit] was Wednesday, but again the families were not allowed to meet their sons.”