Another Lebanese soldier joins jihadists

BEIRUT: A Lebanese soldier announced Monday that he has joined the Nusra Front, citing the Army’s alleged persecution of Sunnis as the motive behind his decision, in the fifth such defection to jihadist groups this month.

In a video posted to a Nusra-affiliated Twitter account, the renegade soldier identified himself as Omar Khaled Shamtieh from the Army’s Second Artillery Brigade. He said he had been stationed at the Army’s checkpoint in Madfoun, in north Lebanon.

“I announce joining the ranks of the Nusra Front and deserting the Army because the Lebanese Army has become a tool in the hands of Hezbollah and because the Army discriminates among its soldiers on a sectarian and religious basis,” Shamtieh said.

He charged that Shiite and Christian personnel were treated with favoritism whereas their Sunni counterpart were humiliated and oppressed.

“Another reason for quitting the Army is the latter’s ill-treatment of Sunni people at checkpoints, especially if they wear a beard and are from Tripoli,” Shamtieh said, accusing soldiers of arresting Sunni youth unjustly.

Shamtieh cited an Army raid in the area of Baddawi, north of Tripoli, in which a person he identified as Mahmoud al-Maneh was beaten and arrested unjustly, as the incident that prompted him to desert.

“If they (the Army) do not stop raiding and persecuting Sunni youths, they should expect more defections from this treacherous Army,” he said, calling on his Sunni comrades to follow suit and join the ranks of the jihadi fighters.

“We should close shoulders with the mujahedin who are standing up against the party of the Vilayat-e Faqih,” Shamtieh said in reference to Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Last week Abdul-Monem Mahmoud Khaled appeared in a video announcing his defection to ISIS.

Before that, ISIS released a video showing a soldier named Abdul-Qader Akoumi also announcing his defection to the group.

A similar video released by Nusra Front before that claimed that Mohammad Antar, a soldier from Fnaydeq, north Lebanon, had joined the group’s ranks.

And before that, soldier Abdallah Shehadeh from Tripoli also reportedly joined Nusra.