US Okays military helicopters for Lebanon: report
Washington has approved the transfer of Huey II military helicopters for Lebanon, the U.S. newspaper World Tribune has...
Wednesday, 24 September 2014
US Okays military helicopters for Lebanon: report
US Okays military helicopters for Lebanon: report
Washington has approved the transfer of Huey II military helicopters for Lebanon, the U.S. newspaper World Tribune has...
Erdogan promises Salam to help secure hostages’ release
Doubts cast over strike on Khorasan
The U.S. says it has hit a little-known group called “Khorasan” in Syria, but experts and activists argue it actually...
Prisoner swap with militants possible: Machnouk
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s interior minister said Wednesday for the first time that the government was not opposed to a prisoner swap with the ISIS and the Nusra Front, as the families of captive soldiers brought the country to a standstill by blocking a major highway between Beirut and the Bekaa Valley.
“A trade-off is possible,” Nouhad Machnouk said, shifting away from the government’s prior decision to suspend negotiations after Nusra and ISIS militants began executing soldiers in an effort to pressure the government to meet its requests.
Machnouk spoke to news outlets before flying to Paris, where he is set to meet Future Movement leader, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
More than 30 soldiers and policemen were captured by Nusra and ISIS militants during an armed attack on the northeastern border town of Arsal last month.
The two groups are said to be holding at least 21 captives. To date, the militants have beheaded two soldiers and shot another.
ISIS has asked for the release of Islamists detained in Roumieh prison, while Nusra are demanding protection for Syrian refugees and the opening of a safe passage for civilians into and out of Arsal.
The Army is wary of allowing free passage from Arsal to the outskirts, where the militants are hiding, for fear that they could receive food and aid from the town.
The government’s turnaround came a day after Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah declared that he was not opposed in principle to a prisoner swap. The militants have claimed in the past that Hezbollah is obstructing the negotiations for the release of the prisoners.
It also occurred as the families of the hostages escalated their protests at the government’s inaction by blocking a key thoroughfare from Beirut to the Bekaa Valley.
The protesters burned tires and erected tents in Dahr al-Baidar and before the village of Aley on the Beirut-Damascus highway.
They also partially blocked the Tarshish-Zahle road and vowed to completely block it Thursday if the government did not take action to free the captives.
The blocking of the roads came after pledges to step up protests to pressure the government into negotiating with their captors, and aimed to isolate the Bekaa from the capital and Mount Lebanon.
“We hold the government responsible for what has happened and for what might happen in the future,” said the sister of a captive soldier. She appealed to rival Lebanese politicians to act quickly to resolve the issue, calling for swapping the captive personnel with Islamist detainees held in Roumieh prison, the main demand of the militants.
“Beware of the anger of the mothers. ... We want you to secure the liberation of our sons quickly,” one of the captives’ father said.
The interior minister expressed his sympathy to the families of the hostages who had blocked the arterial roads, but said that such protests do not influence the terrorists who are holding their sons hostage.
Machnouk condemned the killing of abducted Army soldier Mohammad Hamieh who was executed by Nusra militants last week and slammed last week’s roadside bombing that killed two Army soldiers in Arsal, saying the incidents are acts of terror that serve to disrupt negotiations.
Such acts targeting the Army and security forces “blatantly contradict internal and foreign efforts to find a solution to secure the return of the captives,” he said.
The persistence of terrorist assaults, according to Machnouk, proves the underlying intent of inciting sectarian strife in Lebanon in general and the Bekaa in particular.
Escalating sectarian tensions in the region “facilitates the implementation of the large conspiracy plotted against Lebanon and its people,” he said.
The interior minister called on the people of the Bekaa and the Lebanese in general, to form a unified and cohesive front in order to foil terrorist plans.
Speaking to the families of the victims, Machnouk said that “the blood of their children would not go to waste.”
The suffering of both the hostages and their families are a national responsibility and the hostage crisis will require time, said the interior minister, expressing hope that the detained would return unharmed.
But tensions in the Bekaa Valley were matched by Tripoli where unnamed militants opened fire at Army posts in Bab al-Tabbaneh, Syria Street and Barad al-Bisar, read a statement released by the Lebanese Army late Wednesday.
One soldier incurred a minor wound in his leg as a result of the Bab al-Tabbaneh attack. The soldier was rushed to the hospital for treatment.
According to the statement, soldiers at all three Army posts fired back at the militants and launched a chase in an attempt to seize the perpetrators.
The Army also cordoned off the Barad al-Bisar area and barred any cars from entering or leaving the area, a security source told The Daily Star.
However, it remains unclear whether the soldiers were capable of detaining any of the gunmen. The attacks happened at separate times throughout the day.
Why President Obama Is in New York
After the President's address at the United Nations General Assembly this morning, Secretary of State John Kerry sent the following message to the White House email list.
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Good afternoon,
Each and every year, the world's leaders gather in New York for a session of the United Nations General Assembly. Earlier today, President Obama spoke to them directly in an address that warrants the attention not only of those leaders, but of all Americans. It was clear, candid, and compelling. The President talked about the world as it is, and the world as we all hope it can be.
The President said that, for all the hard-won progress we see in the world, there is also what he today called a "pervasive unease."
A deadly Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa, Russian aggression in Ukraine, and the group of medieval murdering terrorists known as ISIL, which, left unchecked, could pose a growing threat beyond the region -- including our homeland.
So when President Obama addressed the leaders of more than 140 nations this morning, he posed two fundamental questions that will help define both the world's future and our own: Can the major powers set aside their differences and meet their responsibilities as leaders? And can the world reject the cancer of violent extremism?
Army needs written guarantees to ensure success
The words of Prime Minister Tammam Salam and other politicians about supporting the Lebanese Army are all well and good, high-ranking security sources have told The Daily Star, but wishes and statements alone won’t liberate the captured soldiers or defeat the terrorists.
The Army and security forces need to receive written guarantees issued by the Cabinet, the sources said. In the past, the government of former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora gave guarantees to then-Army commander Michel Sleiman that enabled him to use all means to abolish the phenomenon of the extremist Islamist group Fatah al-Islam in the northern Palestinian camp of Nahr al-Bared. This time, guarantees should be issued that would allow the Army to do whatever is necessary to liberate the security personnel captured during the battle for Arsal in early August.
If this is done, it would prevent the obstruction of any operation that the Army starts, and would boost the military’s ability to undertake the task entrusted to it by the Supreme Defense Council: preserving security in all of Lebanon.
The sources expressed fear that a failure to give such assurances might lead to unfortunate developments that would not be in the interest of the Lebanese state and would decrease the chances of the soldiers being released.
In contrast to rumors that the Lebanese Army doesn’t have enough strength to defeat the terrorists in Arsal, the sources said that the facts on the ground indicate the opposite. The latest development that led to a number of terrorists in Arsal being killed was thanks to the Lebanese Army using a high-tech drone to fire a rocket at one of the militants’ bases.
The weather factor will also play a large role in determining events in the next few weeks, according to the sources, a factor which applies to all sides. However, the Army’s decision to close most of the supply passages and prevent aid and other vital items reaching the militants will affect their capability to resist so strongly.
Concerning the issue of the captured, the sources said that kidnappers were still keeping their hostages in Arsal and its perimeter, and were not in the outskirts as some believe.
They also claimed that only one call had been made between the kidnappers’ representatives and the chief negotiator dispatched by Qatar, showing that what has been said about ongoing talks and contacts with the kidnappers over the issue is inaccurate, even if certain statements indicate otherwise.
The sources think the countries Lebanon has so far relied upon to help with this matter – namely Turkey and Qatar – are no longer available to assist, likely due to the fact that they are now participants in the anti-terrorism international alliance being built to crush ISIS.
The sources denied knowing of any plans in the works to release the 21 soldiers and policemen, saying that it all depended on the behavior of ISIS and the Nusra Front.
They should succumb to Lebanon’s demand that they stop killing captives before negotiations can be resumed, the sources said.
Fleeing ISIS, but fearing the weather
DEIR AL-AHMAR, Lebanon: Abu Ahmad, a Syrian refugee with a toothless smile, sucked on a cigarette at the edge of the crude tented settlement he now calls home. “In Raqqa, they would have cut my fingers off for this,” he said. “For this, I would be a kaffir [apostate],” he said, inhaling deeply. Abu Ahmad and approximately 400 other refugees fled Raqqa after ISIS took over the town and implemented their strict interpretation of Islamic law. Now spread across fifteen camps on the outskirts of Deir al-Ahmar in North Bekaa, the refugees said that while the butchery of ISIS is well behind them, they have a new, even less discriminate foe in Lebanon: the elements.
“We’re scared of the cold and the rain,” said Taher, as the mountain winds whipped up the corners of his red checkered kiffeyeh. When the rain begins to fall in a few weeks’ time, the fallow field where they have set up a makeshift camp will turn to mud.
“When the rain comes, we’ll be lost. The ground will turn to mud up to our knees,” said Abu Ahmad.
While ill-prepared for the cold, the refugees agreed that even the harshest winter in Lebanon is preferable to ISIS rule in Raqqa.
“Here, there is rain and cold, but there you’ll get your head cut off,” said Abu Khaled. He described how ISIS had mounted a human head on a pole in the center of the town, threatening anyone who moved it with the same fate.
Ali, a wiry young man who was acting as a camp leader, said he was arrested by ISIS patrols after he was caught walking around during prayer time.
He said he was regularly beaten during the 10 days he spent in prison. “They beat me at dawn and at sunset, and forced me to read the Quran all day,” Ali told The Daily Star. His captors, he said, were not Syrian.
According to Abu Ahmad, Islamists from all over the globe now control Raqqa. “There were French, Americans and British people there. All sorts of Europeans,” he said.
Ahmad, a stooped, older man, said ISIS militants had arrested his 12-year-old son for not carrying an ID. Ahmad paid more than $300 to have him released. “If I had not paid, he would have been lost,” said Ahmad. “They were trying to get him to fight with them.”
Women said that they had been forced to wear niqabs and gloves in public or their husbands would be beaten or fined.
“If you’re not wearing it [niqab] they’ll bring in your husband or brother or beat him,” said Hourieh, a woman in one of the camps.
Taher said he was stopped by an ISIS patrol while riding with his wife on his motorcycle, because her face was not fully covered. “They gave me a ticket,” he said.
But Taher, like many refugees in the camp, left his wife and some of his children behind in Raqqa.
“If everybody leaves the house, ISIS comes in and they’ll take everything,” explained Abu Ahmad.
Under ISIS, women rarely leave their homes; they are not permitted to do so without a close male relative. “We just stayed in the house,” said Mariam, sitting on a mattress in her makeshift tent. “They didn’t let us do anything.”
Many of the men are trying to earn money picking crops in Deir al-Ahmar to support their families in Raqqa. They say they opted to come to Lebanon, instead of Turkey, because some had previously worked as seasonal agricultural laborers in the Bekaa Valley
Still, they worry for their family members still living under ISIS rule. The militant group, several refugees said, launches rockets at Syrian warplanes from crowded residential neighborhoods with little regard for the casualties inflicted when the regime jets inevitably return fire.
“When the warplanes come to hit [ISIS] fighters, where are they? They’re in front of our houses,” said Mohammad, another Raqqa native.
“They never launch attacks [against the regime] from military bases. They launch attacks from civilian neighborhoods,” said Abu Ahmed, nodding in agreement.
Ultimately, most refugees say dire economic circumstances in Raqqa, rather than ISIS brutality, forced them to leave the town.
The Raqqa they describe, where water, electricity and food are in short supply, contrasts starkly with the propaganda videos ISIS circulates online which strive to show the city as the fully functioning capital of their so-called caliphate.
“There was very little work, and we didn’t have enough money to get food,” said Taher.
“You couldn’t even buy bread. The price of bread quadrupled,” agreed Abu Ahmad.
The prospect of ISIS crossing the border into Lebanon also worries some of the refugees who have been following the news in Arsal closely.
ISIS is currently holding several soldiers hostage on the outskirts of Arsal and has already beheaded two.
“We’re trying to get away from them,” Mariam said. “Now we’re scared they’ll come here.”
The refugees expressed skepticism that airstrikes, executed this week by the U.S. in cooperation with the Gulf states, against ISIS targets in Raqqa would lead to a long-term solution.
“We support anything that will end the war. We just want to go home,” Abu Ahmad said.
“We just want peace,” Ali said.
The coming winter weighs much heavier on their minds than ISIS or U.S. airstrikes. “We have no wood, we have no roofing, there’s no water, there’s nothing,” Ali said.
“The rain, it will soak us right through,” he said, pointing to the thin, permeable fabric which constituted his roof.
“We need things to cover our roofs,” said Bashir, a Syrian refugee who manages one of the camps.
“When it rains, everything will be destroyed: our mattresses, our clothing,” Abu Ahmad said. “The rain could start any day now.”
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