Lebanese Army imposes ceasefire between rival Tripoli factions

 

Lebanese army tanks deploy in the Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighborhoods where clashes are taking place between Sunni and Alawites in the coastal city of Tripoli, northern Lebanon, on October 23, 2012. (AFP Photo/Joseph Eid)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/lebanon-tripoli-army-ceasefire-syria-089/

The Lebanese Army has deployed soldiers to Tripoli, claiming a ceasefire has been arranged there following three days of deadly fighting between Sunni and Alawite gunmen. Both claim loyalty to different sides in the Syrian civil conflict.

­The army says an agreement for a ceasefire was reached between rivaling factions in the city.

"The army will restore security, and we urge Tripoli's residents to fully comply with security forces and deal with things wisely, because security forces will start erecting checkpoints in Tripoli and staging patrols to arrest anyone who disrupts security," read a statement issued Tuesday.

The Army Command announced on Tuesday that its units had arrested about 100 gunmen, including 34 Syrians and four Palestinians, in security sweeps in Beirut and Tripoli. Fifteen troops, including two officers, were wounded during the raid, the statement added.

Soldiers also seized weapons while raiding properties in Beirut and Tripoli where gunmen were staying. Army units continue to raid the “hideouts” in order to restore calm in the two cities, the announcement said.

The army is implementing a security plan laid out by the Command to suppress violence on the streets.

The rival districts have been gripped by frequent fighting between pro- and anti-Assad militias as tensions spilled over the border from Syria.

The Sunday fighting in Tripoli involved the neighboring areas of northern city Bab al-Tabbaneh, a Sunni Muslim stronghold that supports the Syrian opposition, and Jebel Mohsen, an Alawite district that backs Assad government.

Security is the main concern in recent days, as the country was hit by violent attacks and riots triggered by the assassination of Lebanese security official Wissam al-Hassan in central Beirut on Friday.

The powerful car bombing claimed the lives of the official and his bodyguard, along with others, and wounded more than 100 people.

The assassination also sparked mass disturbance among Prime Minister Najib Mikati's opposition as people suspect he played a role in the high-profile killing. Mikati is a Sunni Muslim who earlier had personal ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while his cabinet includes many politicians close to Damascus.

 

AFP Photo/Joseph Eid

 

AFP Photo/Joseph Eid

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US says it wants Lebanese to elect new government

 

US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland (file photo)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/24/268413/us-says-it-wants-new-lebanon-govt/

The United States says it wants a new government in Lebanon after last week's deadly bombing in Beirut created a political turmoil in the Middle Eastern country.

US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in Washington on Tuesday that the Lebanese need to elect leaders who will be able to deal with what she calls the threat of a spillover from the Syrian crisis.

"We support the efforts of President (Michel) Sleiman and other responsible leaders in Lebanon to build an effective government and to take the necessary next steps in the wake of the October 19th terrorist attack," she said.

"President Sleiman is engaged in discussions with all parties to form a new government. We support that process,” Nuland added. "In the interim, we don't want to see a vacuum.”

"The export of instability from Syria threatens the security of Lebanon now more than ever, and it's really up to the Lebanese people to choose a government that is going to counter this threat," she stated.

On October 19, a car bomb blast in Beirut's eastern Ashrafiya district killed at least eight people and injured scores of others. The intelligence chief of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, General Wissam al-Hassan, was also among those killed in the blast.

The blast was the first major bomb attack in Beirut since 2008. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the government was trying to identify the perpetrators and that they would be punished.

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Lebanon on a knife-edge: Emergency cabinet called over blast



 

Source Video: Russia Today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Pd572qMsw
Story Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/lebanon-attack-bomb-syria-847/

Tensions run high in Lebanon as the government declared an emergency meeting following a bomb attack that killed a top security official. Clashes and protests have been reported throughout the country amid opposition calls for the PM to resign.

Riots and protests continued into Saturday as thousands of people across Lebanon voiced their ire at the car bomb blast in Beirut on Friday that claimed the lives of eight people. Over a hundred people were also injured in the explosion that killed Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan.

Enraged citizens have blocked roads with burning tires as a sign of their protest, while clashes in the city of Tripoli close to the southern Syrian border fueled fears the Syria’s conflict is overflowing across the border.

The secretary-general of Lebanese opposition group Future Movement, Ahmad Hariri, said that the attack had been masterminded by embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Hariri also condemned Lebanon’s current PM Najib Mikati to resign immediately, saying that “he is personally responsible for the blood of General Wissam al-Hassan and the innocent.”

“We accuse Bashar al-Assad of the assassination of Wissam al-Hassan, the guarantor of the security of the Lebanese,” Hariri told a Lebanese TV station.

While former Lebanese Interior Minister Ziad Baroud told al-Jazeera that it was too early to ascertain who was behind the bombing.

"We have no indication whatsoever [of who is behind this]. We know this is a strong and sad message, and we know this could destabilize the whole country," said Baroud.

The attack has come at a time of strong antagonism between pro-Syrian regime groups and anti-Assad factions in Lebanon. Many fear that the conflict in Syria will exacerbate sectarian divisions in neighboring Lebanon.

Rifts are growing steadily wider in Lebanese society as the countries Sunni Muslims get behind the rebels and the Shiites offer their support to President Assad.

A Lebanese protester runs between burning tyres as demonstrators block a road in the southern city of Sidon on October 20, 2012 to protest against a bomb blast in the capital Beirut the day before (AFP Photo / Mahmoud Zayyat)

 

A Lebanese protester throws clothes on a pile of burning tyres as demonstrators block a road in the southern city of Sidon on October 20, 2012 to protest against a bomb blast in the capital Beirut the day before (AFP Photo / Mahmoud Zayyat)

The security official who was assassinated was a Sunni Muslim who opposed Assad and the regime’s strongest ally in Lebanon, the Shiite group Hezbollah.

The blast struck the Ashrafiyeh district of Beirut, a majority Christian neighborhood of the Lebanese capital. An explosives-laden car was detonated in a grounded street at rush hour, injuring over 100 people and decimating surrounding buildings.

It was the first car bombing in Lebanon since four years ago, when Lebanon’s top anti-terrorism investigator was killed along with three others.

The UN has condemned the attack calling for a thorough investigation to find the perpetrators, while the US called the blast a “terrorist attack.”

 

Lebanese people take part in a candlelight vigil near the site of a car bomb blast in Beirut on October 19, 2012 (AFP Photo / Patrick Baz)

 

A Lebanese man burns tyres in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon to protest against the assasination of top intelligence official Wissam al-Hassan in a blast on October 19, 2012 (AFP Photo / Mahmoud Zayyat)

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Beirut blast: Who serves to gain?

Lebanese security forces and rescue workers gather at the site of an explosion in Beirut's Christian neighbourhood of Ashrafieh on October 19, 2012. (AFP Photo/Patrick Baz)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/beirut-blast-syria-israel-829/

The deadly blast in Beirut which killed eight and wounded 118 more has risked destabilizing Lebanon while civil war rages in Syria. Middle Eastern analyst Ali Rizk told RT that the one with the most to gain from the attack was not Syria, but Israel.

RT: So you are there in the city, how would you assess the situation there right now?

Ali Rizk: Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN envoy to Syria, he was here in Beirut just two days ago. In his statements, he said that he was very afraid that the conflict or unrest in Syria could not stay within Syria’s borders forever, and that eventually, if it continues, it will go beyond these borders.

Now, two days after he made these statements, this massive, massive blast – I was at the scene for a couple of hours –we already have the political element coming into play. Some elements of the March 14th movement, which is known to be anti-Bashar al-Assad, even before it was known who was killed in this explosion, they quickly pointed the fingers at the Syrian government. And now with [senior Lebanese intelligence official ]Wissam al-Hassan, the head of internal security has been killed or targeted, is known to be pro-March 14th [and not an ally] of the Syrian government. This will only lead to more and more fingers [being pointed] from March 14th, and from their Western allies being pointed at Syria. [It is] similar to the situation we witnessed when [former Lebanese prime minister] Rafik Hariri was assassinated.

­Named after the date of the Cedar Revolution, the March 14th alliance was a coalition of political parties formed in the wake of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. United by their anti-Syrian stance, the group pushed for a lessening of Damascus’ influence on internal Lebanese affairs, the establishment of a commission to investigate Hariri’s assassination, the resignation of security officials, and the organization of parliamentary elections. The Cedar Revolution secured a withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanese soil that same year.

RT: What do you make of the accusations that the Syrian government is behind the blast?

AR: The question that must be raised in all cases is who benefits from such an act? If the Syrian government goes ahead with [such] acts – we don’t have any information – but if it does…I think it’s only endangering itself and committing suicide. Is the Syrian government as such a suicidal government? I myself don’t [think] so.

The side which benefits maybe would be Israel. This might be a coincidence, but it might not be. Hezbollah actually sent an unmanned drone into Israeli airspace just a few days ago. So could this be a response from Israel…because many are saying that Israel doesn’t have the ability, that it now cannot actually wage a war against Hezbollah and against Lebanon. So has Israel resorted to creating internal instability inside Lebanon with the aim of keeping Lebanon preoccupied with itself and taking it out of what we refer to here as the resistance axis, which includes Iran, Syria and Hezbollah? We also must not forget the potential of Israel playing a role.

The fact that many of the al-Qaeda elements and the extremists who are fighting the Syrian government inside Syria, it is said that many of them have fled over here into Lebanon from the city of Homs and taken refuge. The explosion we saw today – car bombings – indeed do bear the traces of al-Qaeda, it affiliates and even some foreign intelligence sources.

RT: As you mentioned, after the Special Envoy to Syria did warn that the Syrian conflict could spread beyond Syria itself. You’ve just been talking about Israel, we’ve seen the events in Lebanon, and of course we’ve been reporting about the impact on Turkey. Which other countries now could be affected by the Syrian crisis?

AR: The Syrian crisis, as I said, could affect the whole region. We also have Iraq. Iraq could be very much involved, especially taking into consideration al-Qaeda and its presence there. The whole region could be set ablaze. Even some of Syria’s foes, like the United States and the Obama administration, have warned of the regional repercussions of the ongoing Syria unrest. So I think the whole region is exposed, and so for this reason it is necessary for there to be a judgment to the initiative by Lakhdar Brahimi, who focused on seeking a ceasefire on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

 

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Car bomb rocks Beirut: At least eight dead, 78 injured (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

 

A car burns at the site of an explosion in Ashrafieh, east Beirut, October 19, 2012. (Reuters)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/beirut-lebanon-explosion-police-797/

At least eight are dead and 78 wounded after a car bomb rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut, MTV quotes civil defense sources as saying. The attack targeted a majority Christian neighborhood in the ethnically divided city.

At least four of the wounded transported to the city's Jeitawi Hospital were children.

The blast rocked the city’s Sassine Square in the predominately Christian Ashrafieh neighborhood on Friday. The explosive-laden car was detonated during rush hour at 3:00 p.m. local time as many students were leaving school, the Lebanese Daily Star reports. Plumes of black smoke were seen rising from the eastern part of the city.

Ambulances dispatched to the scene were taking the wounded to hospital.

At least seven cars were set on fire during the blast, an MTV correspondent on the ground said, and many more were battered by falling bricks. Considerable damage to the surrounding buildings has also been reported, with a tangled mess of wires, railings, and balconies crashing to the ground.

Human body parts were seen scattered on the roads. Flying glass from windows shattered during the blast wounded more than 20 people, the Lebanese National News Agency reports. Red Cross workers were seen evacuating bloodied casualties from a burning building.

The explosion occurred 200 meters from a local Kataeb political headquarters, better known in English as the Phalanges Party. The Phalanges are a right-wing Christian political-paramilitary organization which played a prominent role in the Lebanese Civil War.

The country's Interior Minister Marwan Sharbel arrived at the scene shortly after the blast.

It was the first car bombing to Beirut since January 2008, when Lebanon’s top anti-terrorism investigator was killed along with three others.

No one has taken responsibility for the attack.

 

Lebanese security forces and rescue workers gather at the site of an explosion in Beirut's Christian neighbourhood of Ashrafieh on October 19, 2012. (AFP Photo / Patrick Baz)

 

Lebanese firefighters douse burning vehicles at the site of a car bomb explosion in Beirut's Christian neighbourhood of Ashrafieh on October 19, 2012. (AFP Photo)

 

A woman is helped by a Lebanese soldier after an explosion in Ashafriyeh district, central Beirut, October 19, 2012. (Reuters)

Syrian spillover

Oxford historian Mark Almond told RT that there could be many likely perpetrators behind the bombing, but “the most likely explanation is that it’s linked to the Syrian crisis.”

“It’s not just that this is a kind of a natural process that there are overlaps of various groups over the borders of Syria into Lebanon, it’s also that it’s perhaps in the interest of one side to really internationalize this crisis,” he said.

Saying that the opposition has regularly called for international assistance and intervention, Almond believes “the more the neighbors of Syria seem to be destabilized by the fighting inside Syria… the easier it is to make an argument that some kind of international intervention must come about in order to keep the peace.”

The deadly civil war in neighboring Syria has pitted primarily Sunni rebels and the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who is from the Alawite Islamic sect.

Unresolved tensions between Lebanon’s Sunnis and Shiites communities stemming from the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War have been inflamed by the Syrian conflict, which had claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.

On Friday Syria condemned "the cowardly terrorist attack" in Beirut.

 

Lebanese forensic experts and security forces inspect the site of an explosion in Beirut's Christian neighbourhood of Ashrafieh on October 19, 2012. (AFP Photo / Anwar Amro)

 

Lebanese rescue workers and firefighters inspect the site of an explosion in Beirut's Christian neighbourhood of Ashrafieh on October 19, 2012. (AFP Photo / Anwar Amro)

 

Lebanese army soldiers secure the area at the site of an explosion in Ashrafieh, central Beirut, October 19, 2012. (Reuters)

 

A civil defence member helps a wounded man at the site of an explosion in Ashrafieh, central Beirut, October 19, 2012. (Reuters)

 

A wounded woman is carried at the site of an explosion in Ashrafieh, central Beirut, October 19, 2012. (Reuters)

 

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Lebanese TV airs clip simulating flight of Hezbollah drone

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/13/266417/hezbollah-drone-flight-simulation-aired/

Lebanese television Al Manar has broadcast footage simulating how the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah sent a drone deep into the Israeli airspace, evading radar systems.

Al Manar released the video on Friday after Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah confirmed the flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that entered Israeli airspace earlier this week.

The operation, code-named Hussein Ayub (the ex-commander of Hezbollah air force who was martyred in 1996), saw Hezbollah’s drone fly hundreds of kilometers into the Israeli airspace and get very close to Dimona nuclear plant without being detected by advanced Israeli and US radars, Nasrallah said during a televised speech late on Thursday.

"This is only part of our capabilities," he stressed, adding that Israelis have admitted to their security failure despite being provided with the latest technologies by Western powers.

Hezbollah secretary-general stated that Hezbollah’s drones are made in Iran but assembled by the resistance movement.

Hezbollah plans to send more drones over Israel in the future, he said, adding that the operation shows the resistance movement is ready to defend Lebanon.

Security analysts say the incident indicates that the Israeli military is incapable of handling a surprise attack despite the numerous military maneuvers regularly conducted by the regime.

Intelligence experts contend that the interloper should have been intercepted from the Mediterranean as it entered the skies of the Gaza Strip, before it was shot down over the Yatir Forest south of Hebron.

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Hezbollah confirms sending drone into Israeli airspace

Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah (file photo)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/11/266155/hezbollah-confirms-entering-israel-skies/

Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah confirms the Lebanese resistance movement has sent a drone deep into the Israeli airspace evading radar systems.

The operation code-named Hussein Ayub saw Hezbollah’s drone fly hundreds of kilometers into the Israeli airspace and getting very close to Dimona nuclear plant without being detected by advanced Israeli and US radars, Nasrallah said during a televised speech late on Thursday.

"This is only part of our capabilities," he stressed, adding that Israelis have admitted to their security failure despite being provided with the latest technologies by Western powers.

Hezbollah secretary-general stated that Hezbollah’s drones are made in Iran but assembled by the resistance movement.

Hezbollah plans to send more drones over Israel in the future, he added, adding that the operation shows the resistance movement is ready to defend Lebanon.

The resistance leader further dismissed Western accusations of Hezbollah's intervention in the Syrian unrest, describing the allegation as "sheer lie."

"Hezbollah has not fought alongside Syrian forces.... It is not true that Hezbollah is going to take some land from Syria," Nasrallah stated.

Hezbollah's leader also rejected allegations that Abu Abbas was the movement's commander in Syria, and condemned insurgents in Syria for threatening Lebanon.

"Threatening Hezbollah is of no use," he emphasized.

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Lebanon army chief to visit Britain?

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/23/263086/lebanon-army-chief-to-visit-britain/

The Lebanese army chief is to pay a visit to London next week, reportedly to discuss reinforcing Lebanese armed forces amid speculations that Britain is plotting to block Lebanon army’s possible moves against Syrian rebels.

The Egyptian Arabic news website Youm7 (the seventh day) reported that General Jean Qahwaji will travel to Britain for the first time next week.

The report said the visit is in line with the British side’s concerted efforts with its European allies to support Lebanese armed forces and prevent the Syrian violence to affect Lebanon.

However, the timing of the visit raises fears that Britain might be setting the stage to protect the London-backed Syrian terrorists against a Lebanese army strike.

Members of the terrorist Free Syrian Army attacked a Lebanese army post on Friday.

After the attack, the Lebanese army confirmed in a statement that the terrorist entered the country’s territory for “the second time in under a week” and pledged not to allow its soil to be used by the parties of conflict in Syria.

“The leadership of the army confirms that it will not allow any party to use Lebanese territory in order to implicate Lebanon in the events of the neighboring countries,” the statement said.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague admitted in August that his country is providing Syrian rebels with “non-lethal support” adding Britain could provide extra support in the form of radio and satellite equipment as well as power generators.

Meanwhile, several media reports published by a range of media outlets from the British Daily Mail to the Israeli military intelligence website DEBKAfile have taken the lid off Britain’s role in fanning the flames of unrest in Syria over the past months.

The reports said Britain is helping Syrian terrorists in all possible forms including tasking Special Air Service (SAS) with training of terrorist leaders while British forces and spy agencies have also set up centers of operation in different Syrian cities including in Homs.

Now Britain claims to have arranged Qahwaji’s visit so that they can discuss London’s help to rebuild the Lebanese army.

That may seem justified by the fact that Lebanon’s government has recently decided to invest £980 million for increasing the country’s military capability and renovating its army in five years.

However, Britain’s record in Syria places a big question mark next to such claims and raise speculations that British officials are rather planning to disrupt Lebanese army’s operations, at least against Syrian terrorists.

 

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Major Naval Deployment: War by Miscalculation, Mistake or Accident

 

By: Andrew Schoerke, member of “Veterans For Peace”

http://warisacrime.org/content/war-miscalculation-mistake-or-accident

The U. S. Navy is currently assembling four Carrier Strike Groups in the Arabian Sea and when in place it will be the most powerful carrier task force assembled since WW II. Although not yet announced, there is little doubt that the purpose of this sea power is to ride “shotgun” for a multi-nation countermining exercise to be held in the Gulf of Oman beginning September 24. Arguably, the exercise is also intended to show Iran that it should not attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz through which over a third of the world’s oil supply transits.

The origin of the escalating crisis with Iran goes back nearly thirty years to when it announced that it had begun a program to enrich uranium for medical research and for use as fuel for a nuclear reactor to generate electricity. Over time, and under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection, Iran’s program has advanced to the point where it has enriched significant amounts of uranium to a degree high enough that it would take very little to bring it to a high enough for a nuclear weapon. However, the international community isn’t buying the peaceful use of the material being put forth by Iran. Instead, it believes that Iran may be engaged in a rogue weapons program and has, therefore, placed more and more stringent sanctions on the country in an effort to force Iran give up its enrichment program. Because Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu believes a nuclear armed Iran is a threat to Israel’s very existence, he has vowed his determination to destroy Iran’s presumed capability to build a nuclear weapon.

However, Mr. Netanyahu has a problem. The American made F-15 and F-16 aircraft flown by the Israeli air force, have neither the range nor the bomb carrying capacity to take out Iranian air defenses or targeted enrichment facilities, most of which are deep underground. Since Israel does not have the strike force it needs, Mr. Netanyahu is trying to get the U.S. involved in his attack. But President Obama has stated, and the IAEA agrees there is no evidence that Iran has the capability to build a nuclear weapon nor is there evidence it even has one.

According to accounts being carried in Israeli newspapers and television stations, Prime Minister Netanyahu is determined to attack Iran before the U.S. national election on November 7. In response to this threat, Mr. Parviz Sarvari of the Iranian National Security Committee is quoted as saying:” If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure.” Compounding the crisis, President Obama, on July 27, signed into law the United States-Israel Enhanced Cooperation Act which, among other things, mandates that the U.S. governmentprovide Israel aerial refueling tankers, missile defense capabilities, and special munitions.

It would be a gross miscalculation on Mr. Netanyahu’s part to launch an attack on Iran believing that the U.S. would come to his rescue using the firepower of the four Carrier Strike Groups in the Arabian Sea as well as other U.S. forces. Further, it would be a mistake on the part of the Iranians to strike at an American or multinational warship thinking that they had joined Israel in attacking their country. The most troubling circumstance, however, would be for some Israeli, Iranian or American, to accidentally begin shooting for no reason or without authorized command. Another Mideast war with the resulting human and economic costs for both the region and the world would be catastrophic.

Whether it is a war by miscalculation, mistake or accident, war is not the answer to this escalating crisis.

 

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