BEIRUT: Those behind the recent attacks on the Lebanese Army in Tripoli are not from Bab al-Tabbaneh, but are close to Hezbollah, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi claimed Monday.
“The investigations have revealed the identities of those who threw the grenades on the Army bases and checkpoints,” Rifi said in an interview with the Lebanese newspaper Al-Joumhouria published Monday.
“They were not supporters of Shadi Mawlawi and Osama Mansour, but rather from Hezbollah’s circle who aimed to create a conflict between the Army and the city’s residents."
Mawlawi and Mansour, whose whereabouts are unknown, are being sought over terror charges. Their supporters, however, have been holed up in the Abdallah bin Massoud Mosque in Tripoli, and were given a 48-hour deadline Sunday to leave the compound.
Locals said over the weekend that the fugitives have fled to Cyprus, but The Daily Star could not independently verify the authenticity of those claims.
Rifi said that their supporters are free to leave the mosque without fear of being detained.
In televised remarks later Monday, Rifi said that he was not aware of the whereabouts of Mawlawi and Mansour, but he believed they were unharmed.
Rifi, the ex-Internal Security Forces chief, promised to free Tripoli of armed groups, and said the evacuation of the Abdullah bin Massoud Mosque of armed militants has already begun with the help of local sheikhs and officials.
Tripoli’s MPs, ministers and religious leaders from the area held a meeting and reached consensus to denounce any armed presence in Tripoli that was not affiliated with the official security agencies, Rifi said.
“We have agreed that anyone responsible for security problems in Tripoli is not welcome in the city, and we have asked the group inside the mosque to leave the city to wherever they wanted.”
Mansour and Mawlawi rejected Rifi’s offer for their supporters to leave the mosque Monday, saying the intentions of the sheikhs and local officials were not genuine or made good will.
“The mediations and efforts that were made to reduce the armed existence and eliminate what was called the security zone... was not related to MPs, ministers or security officials," a statement by the salafist leaders said. “They were due to the efforts of Bab al-Tabbaneh’s sheikhs and some officials inside it.”
Mawlawi and Mansour took control of the mosque after a security plan for Tripoli was implemented by Lebanese security forces in April to restore calm in the restive city. Using the mosque as their base for operations, the men and their supporters have installed surveillance cameras near the mosque and have been seen questioning passersby at night.
Two young men championing a radical branch of salafism and believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, Mansour and Mawlawi were given the death penalty earlier this month by Military Investigative Judge Nabil Wehbe for their involvement in a bombing near an Army checkpoint in August that killed one and left several wounded.
Last month, Faisal Aswad and Fawwaz Bazzi, both longtime Shiite residents of Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh, were shot dead in separate attacks. Both killings were linked to Mawlawi and Mansour.
Tripoli sheikh Khaled al-Sayyed had confirmed to The Daily Star Sunday that the salafist supporters of the duo had been given 48 hours to evacuate the Mosque.
Late last week, knowledgeable local sources informed The Daily Star that Mawlawi and Mansour had moved to Cyprus, while their groups remained in the mosque.
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