Batroun mourns death of local army officer killed in last week’s helicopter shooting
Batroun mourned on Friday the death of Samer Hanna, the army officer who was killed when a Hezbollah fighter opened fire on a military helicopter last week. Residents of Batroun were still having trouble believing that such an “impudent crime” could occur, and that Resistance gunfire could have taken the life of one of their own. They also were shaking their heads at the reaction of some political figures to the incident.
Many residents were accusing Minister of Telecommunications Gebran Bassil, who said that the incident should not be exploited for political purposes, of wanting to cover up the crime.
“Does the Free Patriotic Movement (Bassil’s Party) want to condemn Officer Hanna and find Hezbollah innocent?” one resident asked.
Some people reported that the parents of Hanna’s fiancée took down images of MP Michel Aoun and Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s, apparently saying “we do not want their pictures in our houses, or their gunfire in our son’s head.”
Some people also said that the slain officer’s father was gruffly dismissive when Change and Reform bloc MP Chamel Mozaya visited Batroun to offer condolences on behalf of Speaker Nabih Berri.
Others said residents of Batroun were no longer supporting the FPM, and had removed the party’s insignia from the city, after FPM representatives failed to attend Officer Hanna’s funeral.
A young man who was a former supporter of the FPM said: “Where is Minister Bassil? Batroun will not surrender and will answer the gunfire with our words and with our vote.”
The scene in Batroun was surreal, as grief from a young man’s death seemed to harden into a determination to change the city’s political direction.