The following are a selection of stories from Lebanese newspapers that may be of interest for The Daily Star's readers. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of the reports.
As-Safir
Army aborts terror attacks in Sidon
The Lebanese Army aborted two terrorist attacks that were supposed to take place at dawn Monday, targeting a Shiite religious center and an Army Intelligence office in Sidon, the newspaper said. It quoted “well-informed” security sources as saying that the cell that was tasked to carry out the attacks in parallel of the fighting in Tripoli was made up of four followers of fugitive sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, including one Lebanese and three Syrians who are being hunted down by the Army.
A Palestinian who is linked to one of the suspected terrorists turned himself in to the Army, and another suspect, identified as the father of a wanted terrorist hiding in the Palestinian camp of Ain al-Hilweh, was apprehended during army raids of suspected hideouts in old Sidon, where weapons were also seized, the sources added.
Al-Akhbar
Inconclusive deal ended Tripoli fighting
The three-day fierce battle between the Army and Nusra-linked Sunni militants in Tripoli came to a sudden stop after a deal was reached allowing the “disappearance” of the gunmen and the Army’s deployment inside the battered areas of Bab Tabbaneh and Minyeh, the paper reported quoting political sources.
According to the sources, the settlement was worked out with the help of former Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Future Movement officials, including Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, and was implemented in two phases. The first stipulated that the gunmen pulled out from the old souk to preserve it, and in the second phase the gunmen were “allowed to vanish” from the embattled areas at dawn Monday, leaving their weapons behind. Some of the gunmen escaped from Tripoli and were reported to have resettled in the outskirts of Dinnieh further north, and others remained in Tripoli, the sources said. The Army has in fact won one battle in the Tripoli war, the sources added.
Ash-Sharq
Presidential election not before next year
On the eve of the 14th Parliament session to elect a president set for Wednesday, diplomatic sources have played down the possibility of holding the presidential poll before next year, arguing that the international community was overwhelmed by urgent international issues and that Lebanon was relegated to the backlog.
In the meantime, the Lebanese are requested to handle their affairs until the fog in the region has dissipated and the situation in neighboring countries, especially in Syria, has become clearer, the sources said. During that “standby phase” the Lebanese can try to reach agreement on a compromise president, who should have a clear vision on how to complete the implementation of the Taif Agreement that ended the Lebanese Civil War.
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