Kahwaji says security situation in Lebanon is well in hand
The commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, General Jean Kahwaji, said on Thursday that Lebanon will never be a safe haven for terrorism, adding that the security situation in the country was now "well controlled."
"The security situation is well controlled, especially after the security and armed forces succeeded in arresting some members of the terrorist cell that was behind the recent explosions in Tripoli," Kahwaji said after meeting foreign military officials and representatives from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Six suspects were rounded up on Sunday but three have since been released.
The cell was said to be behind an attack on a military bus in the northern city of Tripoli on September 29, when four soldiers and three civilians were killed.
It was also allegedly responsible for an attack in the port city in mid-August which killed 14 people, including nine soldiers and a child, and the murder of a soldier in the bombing of an army intelligence post in Abdeh last May.
The army is still chasing the cell”s alleged head, Abdel Ghani Ali Jawhar, who is reportedly hiding at the Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in the North.
Press reports on Thursday said that the army had taken some measures to prevent Jawhar from fleeing Beddawi to the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh.
Kahwaji also told his visitors that the situation along Lebanon”s Southern border was stable despite Israel”s non-stop violations of Lebanon”s airspace and its continued occupation of the Shebaa Farms, the Kfar Shuba Hills and the Lebanese half of Ghajar village.
Commenting on the situation along Lebanon”s northern border, Kahwaji reiterated that the Lebanese Army had prior knowledge of Damascus” decision to deploy troops along the border with the aim of preventing smuggling.
Meanwhile, well-informed sources denied a report that Kahwaji had recently visited Damascus to discuss border control coordination with Syrian military officials, according to El-Nashra news Web site.
However, the sources said that Kahwaji would not hesitate to make such visit if necessary without having to do it secretly.
The local daily Al-Akhbar reported on Thursday that Lebanon”s army chief had met the Syrian military command in Damascus late last month.
Also on Thursday, Lebanon”s Military Court continued trying eight Lebanese and three Palestinians for planning terrorist attacks against UNIFIL.
The Palestinian suspects are being tried in absentia.
All 11 were also accused of firing rockets from Lebanon at northern Israel.
The last such attack occurred on January 8, 2008, when two Katyusha rockets hit the Israeli community of Shlomo in western Galilee.
On the same day, a roadside bomb in the southern coastal town of Rmaileh near Sidon struck a UNIFIL vehicle, leaving two UN peacekeepers lightly wounded.