Alawites Under Attack in Lebanon

BEIRUT: Palestinian groups denied on Sunday their involvement in Tripoli’s security incidents following a series of alternating grenade attacks targeting the Alawite Jabal Mohsen area and the Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood, while the city’s lawmakers stressed that the incidents did not reflect domestic political disagreements.

A mortar grenade was launched into the area of Bab al-Tabbaneh in Tripoli on Saturday but left no casualties. The Lebanese Army swiftly arrived in the area and began investigations into the incident.

The attack comes after 18 were wounded when grenades were thrown on Wednesday and Thursday outside the Al-Ashkar coffee shop in Jabal Mohsen.

Tripoli was the scene last year of deadly sectarian clashes between Sunni supporters of Lebanon’s parliamentary majority and rivals from the Alawite community supported by Syria; Alawites are an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam.

Tripoli’s security incidents have led to an exchange of accusations between figures of the Sunni and Alawite communities who respectively held Iran and Egypt responsible, while others accused Islamists of standing behind the incidents.

On Friday, the Democratic Arab Party representing the Alawite community in Lebanon mainly residing in the Jabal Mohsen area of Tripoli had accused Egypt of attempting to hinder the Syrian-Saudi rapprochement by provoking the incident. The Egyptian Embassy denied these claims.

Meanwhile, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), a pro-Syrian Palestinian armed group mainly stationed in the Bekaa region, and the Fatah Movement denied on Sunday their involvement in Tripoli’s security incidents.

PFLP-GC spokesperson Abou Adnan Awdeh denied on Sunday news reports claiming his group simultaneously fired rockets from the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp into Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.

Awdeh stressed that the Lebanese Army presence around the camp proved that such alleged rocket-firing did not occur, and added that the PFLP-GC has been coordinating to the highest extent with the army.

On the other hand, Fatah official Abou Imad al-Wani also denied accusations claiming that the Beddawi refugee camp became a launching pad of simultaneous attacks on Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh.

The official stressed that Fatah was not involved in local domestic disputes, and added that missiles fired in Tripoli aimed to implicate Palestinians in local conflicts.

Wani added that the Palestinians remain at an equal distance from all parties, “since any security breaches in Lebanon would harm the Palestinians as well.”
Wani emphasized the ongoing cooperation with the Leba nese Army as both parties were determined to distance the Palestinians from any conflict.

Meanwhile, Tripoli MPs stressed on Sunday that the incidents did not reflect domestic political disagreements since none of Tripoli’s parties had an interest in destabilizing the security situation in the northern port city.
“As long as no political motives are yet confirmed, the incident should be dealt with only on a security basis,” the statement added.

The lawmakers also called on the security forces to enforce preventive security measures rather than only contain incidents following their occurrence.
In a separate security incident, unidentified assailants tossed on Sunday a Molotov cocktail bomb at a Lebanese Army checkpoint at the entrance of the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, located on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon.

The attack provoked a heightened state of alert among Lebanese Army personnel but led to no casualties, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.
Palestinian factions tasked with maintaining security inside the camp immediately launched a manhunt for the perpetrators, the NNA added.

In another security incident, one smuggler was wounded while his accomplice fled when Le banese Customs police clashed at 4 a.m. on Sunday with a group of smugglers in the Sultan Yaacoub town in the Western Bekaa.

The exchange of fire between the police patrol and the smugglers led to the injury of smuggler Haytham Hamad, from the town of Kfar Kouk in Rashayya region. Hamad was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment while his accomplice Talii Dib managed to flee to an unknown destination.


In other security developments, two more individuals involved in the Ain al-Remmaneh incident were arrested on Friday raising the total number of those detained to 10, according to a well-informed security source.

Ali Yassine and Ali al- Sayyed surrendered themselves to security forces following negotiations between their parents and security officials, the security source said.
They later confessed during investigations carried out by the Lebanese Army Intelligence of their involvement in the Ain al-Remmaneh incident.

The two had taken refuge in the Nabatieh region in the south of Lebanon.
One individual was stabbed to death and four others wounded in clashes in the Beirut Christian suburb of Ain al-Remmaneh last Tuesday night.

Georges Abu Madi, 31, was killed and four others wounded when youths from the mainly Shiite district of Shiyyah entered Ain al-Remmaneh on motorbikes and clashed with residents.