BEIRUT: Lebanon appeared to be on edge Sunday with the government being helpless to stop militants from carrying out their threats to kill captured Lebanese soldiers, amid warnings by Speaker Nabih Berri and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri that ISIS and Nusra Front were seeking to incite sectarian strife.
The government threw its weight behind the Army in its battle against terrorism, while premier Tammam Salam vowed not to give in to terrorist groups, saying Lebanon had decided to confront ISIS and Nusra Front militants entrenched on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal.
In an incident that raised fears of a wider confrontation in the tense Bekaa Valley, the Nusra Front, Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a Hezbollah checkpoint amid conflicting reports on the resulting casualties.
A Nusra Front commander told the Turkish Anadolu News Agency Sunday that the attack on a Hezbollah checkpoint in the village of Khreibeh near the border with Syria late Saturday was the result of an explosive device and not a suicide bomber as earlier reported.
The militant group said the attack destroyed one 57 millimeter cannon.
Security sources and the National News Agency said at least three people were killed in the bombing.
But Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV Sunday denied reports that three party members had been killed, saying: “There were no martyrs in the blast. Only three people were wounded.”
The blast came after a deadly day that saw three Army soldiers killed.
Nusra militants Friday night executed Mohammad Maarouf Hammieh, an abducted Army soldier, hours after two other soldiers were killed in a roadside blast that targeted a military truck in Arsal. Two soldiers had earlier been beheaded by ISIS militants.
The militants from the Nusra Front and ISIS are still holding at least 21 soldiers and policemen they captured during their brief takeover of Arsal last month.
In addition to Hammieh’s execution, Nusra has threatened to kill another captive, policeman Ali Bazal.
Apparently in response to Hammieh’s execution and the killing of two soldiers, the Lebanese Army said Saturday it had pounded militants’ locations near Arsal with medium and heavy weapons.
It said it killed and wounded “a large number” of militants, pledging to continue the fight against terrorism throughout Lebanese territories “whatever the sacrifices might be.”
Faced with mounting security threats, the government gave the Army and security forces a free hand to crush terrorist groups.
“Instructions were given to the Army Command and security forces to take all necessary measures to implement the [agreed-upon] military plans and show no leniency toward all that threatens the well-being of Lebanon and the town of Arsal and its outskirts,” Defense Minister Samir Moqbel told reporters Saturday following a high-profile security meeting chaired by Salam at the Grand Serail.
Moqbel said the participants agreed on the necessity to press on with the “confrontation against terrorist organizations.”
They also rejected “all compromises made at the expense of the Army and the nation’s dignity,” he added. “All options are open and the military operation will not be affected by threats.”
Salam called on the Lebanese to rally behind the Army, saying the government had decided to confront terrorist groups. “Our fate hinges on our unity,” he warned after holding talks with Berri to discuss the government’s response to the ongoing hostage crisis. “We are in need of cooperation with each other and to be a single unified front and never give terrorists the chance to divide us.”
“We sought to negotiate to secure the safety of our sons, but our numerous attempts to reach positive results had no effect and you saw what they did last night,” Salam told reporters, referring to Hammieh’s execution.
“So long as the situation remains as such, our options are clear and it is to confront [terrorism] by rallying behind the Lebanese Army, its leaders and state institutions,” he said. ISIS and Nusra Front are demanding the release of Islamist detainees held in Roumieh Prison in exchange for the captured soldiers. The government has rejected a swap deal.
However, MP Walid Jumblatt said he supported a swap deal with the militants under “specific conditions to ward off strife.”
Meanwhile, the country’s top leaders warned that ISIS and Nusra Front were seeking to inflame sectarian strife.
“Kidnapping and counter-kidnapping is what Daesh [ISIS] and Nusra Front are seeking in order to incite Sunni-Shiite strife and among all the Lebanese,” Berri was quoted by visitors as saying. He praised Hariri’s statement following the execution of Hammieh.
Hariri said militant groups holding Lebanese soldiers captive were seeking strife between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon.
In a statement Saturday, Hariri expressed condolences to the Hammieh family, as well as to the families of soldiers Ali al-Sayyed and Abbas Medlej who were beheaded by ISIS, and the two soldiers killed in Friday’s bombing.
“Terrorist organizations are making use of the abduction of our soldiers as a means to pressure our government and state and army,” Hariri said. “They want Lebanon’s Muslims to fall [in the trap of] strife.”
Hariri urged the Lebanese to rally behind the Army and security forces to root out terrorism and extremism. He also called for unity as terrorists were looking to sow strife between the country’s Muslim communities.
Senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Nabik Kaouk also warned that “takfiri groups,” by killing Lebanese troops, were seeking to “inflame sectarian strife.”
