TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Notorious Islamist militants Shadi Mawlawi and Osama Mansour have been given 48 hours to evacuate the Abdullah bin Masoud Mosque in Bab al-Tabbaneh, a Tripoli sheikh confirmed Sunday, amid a consensus among officials in the northern city to punish those sabotaging the area’s security.
Although no official statement has been released, Tripoli Sheikh Khaled al-Sayyed told The Daily Star that negotiations were underway with factions belonging to Mawlawi and Mansour to leave the mosque over the next 48 hours.
Recently the two men have made the mosque in the Abdul Hamid alley a base for their operations, including various attacks in Tripoli. Believed to be affiliated with the Nusra Front, the men and their supporters have even installed surveillance cameras near the mosque and have been seen questioning passersby at night.
An initial agreement was reached Sunday between the militants and Tripoli’s prominent sheikhs following a series of meetings at the mosque, Sayyed said, adding that he headed the sessions.
The development came in the wake of a warning by Lebanese Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi that the military may use force to address the security threat in Bab al-Tabbaneh, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in Tripoli whose residents have been locked in a cycle of fighting with Alawites from nearby Jabal Mohsen for several years.
The young men, who champion a radical branch of Salafism, 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. No soldiers were harmed.
Mawlawi and Mansour took control of the Abdullah bin Masoud Mosque after a security plan for Tripoli was implemented by Lebanese security forces in April to restore calm in the restive city.
The resulting crackdown in Bab al-Tabbeneh led to many of the major militia leaders being imprisoned, which some believe gave space for Mawlawi and Mansour, who escaped to Syria during this period, to fill the gap and gain influence.
Last month, Faisal Aswad and Fawwaz Bazzi, both Shiites and longtime residents off Bab al-Tabbaneh, were killed. Both deaths were linked to Mawlawi and Mansour.
According to unofficial information, Mawlawi and Mansour have agreed to hand over control of the mosque to the sheikhs during the next 48 hours and will also remove the surveillance cameras.
They have also agreed to refrain from deploying gunmen at night.
There is no clear information about what would happen to Mawlawi and Mansour, however, with some saying they will stay in Bab al-Tabbaneh and others saying they will be moved elsewhere.
Regardless, there is a consensus that Tripoli must be kept calm, and the importance of maintaining security in the city was stressed in a meeting held Sunday at the local residence of MP Samir Jisr.
Attending the meeting were Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, Future bloc MPs Mohammad Kabarah and Badr Wanous, Future Movement Coordinator in the North Mustapha Aloush, and Future Movement leader Saad Hariri’s adviser on north Lebanon, Abdul-Ghani Kabbara.
A statement released after the meeting said: “The participants demand the prosecution of the suspects that assaulted the Army checkpoints. They are now known and they’re unrelated to Tripoli.”
It also emphasized the need to keep working on the security plan implemented by the government.
In a bid to maintain security in the north, the Army continued a series of raids in numerous neighborhoods in Tripoli and several areas in north Lebanon over the weekend.
During one raid of a gathering of Syrian refugees Sunday afternoon in the Akkari village of Aydamoun, Syrian national Fouad al-Arour, who is wanted by the authorities, reportedly threw a hand grenade at soldiers, prompting the Army to open fire on him and kill him.
The Army was able to arrest Mustapha Abed al-Karim and Ibrahim Hussein al-Abbas, both Syrians, who were with Arour at the time. Two hand grenades were seized from the men.
In the nearby town of Minyara, 19 Syrians were detained by the Army. According to an Army statement they were arrested for “wandering on Lebanese territory illegally.”
No comments:
Post a Comment