The security situation in north Lebanon, particularly in the city of Tripoli and the Akkar district, is still very precarious and carries with it the risks of a possible military flare-up, high-ranking security sources said Sunday.
Worse still, the sources warned of attempts by armed groups in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood of Tripoli, which are funded by Arab financiers and enjoy popular and political support, to establish a self-controlled security zone independent from state authority to support the Syrian revolution in response to Hezbollah’s military intervention alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces.
These security zones would be similar to security zones in some areas in Beirut, the Bekaa region and the Lebanese-Syrian border, the sources said, referring to areas controlled by Hezbollah fighters.
Citing simmering tensions in Tripoli, the sources said renewed clashes between the Lebanese Army and gunmen in the restive Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood, whose residents support the Syrian rebels, were still possible.
The sources said two notorious militants, Shadi Mawlawi and Ousama Mansour, had left the Abdullah bin Masoud Mosque in Bab al-Tabbaneh along with their armed supporters under an agreement mediated by local sheikhs, but the Army had not deployed around the mosque, which is now under the control of Dar al-Fatwa.
Mawlawi and Mansour, who were sentenced to death in absentia for their involvement in a deadly bombing targeting the Lebanese Army in Tripoli in August, are still with their supporters and arms in Tripoli, the sources said.
They added that there were large quantities of different types of arms stashed in narrow alleys and poor neighborhoods in Tripoli.
Renewed attacks on Army posts in Tripoli and Akkar have threatened the relative stability achieved since the implementation of a government security plan in April to restore law and order to the city, which had been rocked by a series of deadly clashes over the past few years between Assad’s supporters and his opponents in the neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.
Although the Bab al-Tabbaneh-Jabal Mohsen fighting has ended under a political deal, the sources warned that the fact that armed groups in Bab al-Tabbaneh were trying to set up self-controlled security zones meant that Tripoli was potentially facing a more dangerous situation.
Furthermore, many people in Akkar, driven by sectarian incitement, have become hostile to the Army and its operation in the area, the sources said.
Security agencies possess information about the movements of gunmen in Tripoli who are aiming to create an armed force starting from Lebanese territory to fight publicly alongside the Syrian opposition, the sources said. They added that those gunmen were demanding the same treatment – i.e. freedom of movement – as that granted to Hezbollah fighters who went to Syria to defend the regime.
The armed groups in Tripoli and Akkar view “the Syrian regime as an enemy and that they are bound by their national and religious duty to fight it and that the time has come for the state and the Army to stop barring them from doing their duties toward the Syrian people.”
Concerning the recent attacks on the Army, the same sources said there were question marks about the identity and goal of the attackers, as well as a mystery as to whether these attacks are carried out by terrorist sleeper cells or are the work of Syrian intelligence.
Irrespective of the identity of the attackers, “the aim is the same, which is to cause trouble to the Army and push it either to get tough with the anti-Syrian regime groups, or to cooperate to facilitate the movement of Syrian rebels,” the sources said.
High-ranking military sources said that security measures taken in the north in general, and in Tripoli in particular, were not sufficient to confront the dangers threatening the area.
For instance, the sources said there was only one Army checkpoint in Deir Ammar and another at Madfoun Bridge, but the latter checkpoint’s effectiveness was limited with regard to monitoring and pursuing criminals. This explains the repeated attacks on the military in the same area in Akkar, they said.
Despite statements of support for the Army by rival politicians, the sources said “incitement against the Army is still ongoing, while podiums of some mosques and organizations are still open to extremists who contribute toward the mobilization against the military establishment.”
Meanwhile, a former minister painted a bleak picture after meeting Hezbollah officials, saying that the situation was headed for an escalation, with no signs of a political or military truce.
“Hezbollah sees that the battle against the terrorists in Shebaa and Hasbaya is not far off and that the next few weeks might witness fighting on this front,” said the former minister, who declined to be named.
He did not rule out the possibility of “Israeli hands” in aiding the terrorists to open the Shebaa-Hasbaya front, adding that Hezbollah was fully ready for any eventuality.
On the political front, Hezbollah and its March 8 allies, according to the former minister, see that all channels that could lead to a breakthrough in the presidential deadlock were closed.
“The clear divergence between Tehran and Riyadh in their approach to the situation [in the region] will not help solve the presidential election crisis or improve the deteriorating security conditions,” he added.
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