Military Source: Lebanese Army Has No Access to Sultan Yaqoub
The Lebanese army has no access to the Bekaa Valley town of Sultan Yaqoub which embraces a military base belonging to Ahmed Jibril”s PFLP-GC where an explosion rocked the area overnight Tuesday.
A Lebanese military source said the reason why the army has no right of entry to the area was because it falls within what he called the "Qossaya stie" in the Bekaa which is controlled by armed Palestinian factions.
He acknowledged, however, that the Lebanese army has checkpoints and positions on roads leading to the area "and we carefully check the identity of people entering Sultan Yaqoub."
"But we cannot prevent the presence of Palestinian arms outside the camps in that region," the military source said in remarks published Thursday by pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat.
"The reason for that is that the group has direct link with Syria to the east," he explained. "Therefore, we have no control over arms transfer into the area."
He said Lebanese soldiers "often hear explosions and the bust of machine gun fire, but we can do nothing about it."
Commenting on the blast that echoed late Tuesday across Sultan Yaqoub, the source said the explosion was believed to be a landmine explosion in the vicinity of Jibril”s training camp "where the group is thought to plant landmines every night."
Commander of the PFLP-GC in Lebanon Imad Ramez told Al-Sharq al-Awsat he was "surprised" by the talk of an explosion at the group”s headquarters in Sultan Yaqoub.
In response to a question, Ramez said: "These bases are known to belong to the PFLP-GC. The Lebanese army has outposts on the outskirts."
He said there was "constant coordination and cooperation" between his group and the Lebanese army on issues of Palestinian concern.