This is a demonstration of the Ford GT40 MKII V8's engine. Brace yourself. It sounds like a chorus of a dozen Mack trucks redlining simultaneously. It sounds like a really pissed off tiger made of steel tearing through a junkyard and devouring everything in its path. Its ominous, guttural growl is borderline Biblical. It sounds like the apocalypse. Bring your weak-ass import to the altar. This is its reckoning. Press play, hear it roar, and bow down:
[H/T: Car and Driver]
BEIRUT: ISIS is holding at least eight captive Lebanese soldiers in a small farmhouse one hour outside of Arsal, according to Maher al-Ammatouri, the stone worker who was kidnapped and released this week.
Ammatouri said that the soldiers were being held alongside more than 50 other hostages in the cabin, and that some had been badly beaten.
“The Sunni and Christian soldiers are in low spirits, but they are OK physically,” Ammatouri told The Daily Star. “But the soldiers that they [ISIS] know are Shiites have bad injuries.”
At 11:30 Wednesday morning, a group of armed militants descended upon the quarry near the northeastern town of Arsal where Ammatouri was working with a group of men.
Ammatouri, who is 36 and hails from the Druze Chouf town of Barouk, said the militants had singled him out and shuffled him into a waiting car.
His attackers, who had both Lebanese and Syrian accents, identified themselves. “They told me they were from ISIS.”
After an hour of driving through the rocky badlands surrounding Arsal, Ammatouri said they had reached a lone farmhouse “right near the Syrian border.”
The house, Ammatouri said, had no running water or toilets. Inside, he saw at least eight Lebanese soldiers and between 50 and 60 other individuals. At least 10 guards monitored the hostages at all times.
“I wasn’t really allowed to speak to the people because we were always monitored,” he said. He saw no heavy weaponry at the farmhouse but said the captors had guns.
Still, he was able to speak to captive soldiers Ali Hajj Hasan and Saif Zebien. “They said again and again, please try to tell our families that although we are doing OK at the moment, we need them to do whatever they can to save us.”
The Shiite soldiers, he said had been beaten “with electric cables, with bamboo sticks and with electricity tools,” and had visible injuries to their arms and legs.
The other soldiers, however, appeared to be in decent health. All of the hostages sleep on thin foam mattresses, Ammatouri added.
He received two meals, both bulgur wheat, in the thirty-odd hours he was held.
Ammatouri said he was treated civilly by the ISIS members. “They didn’t beat me,” he said, but added that they had taken, and still retained, his mobile phone. The ISIS members told Ammatouri they had kidnapped him because they wanted information about “who was entering and leaving Arsal.”Members of the terrorist group insisted that a prisoner swap was the primary condition of the soldiers’ release. “They told me there is no other solution other than releasing their men from Roumieh Prison.”
ISIS has already executed two Lebanese soldiers it captured during clashes with the Army in Arsal in early August.
Another Islamist group, the Nusra Front, is holding several security personnel it also kidnapped during the Arsal battles. Between them, the two groups have at least 21 captive servicemen.
While negotiations for the release of the captured servicemen have been slow and wrought with political sensitivities, Ammatouri’s family moved swiftly to secure his release.
“The workmen at the quarry called us 10 minutes after he was captured,” said Ammatouri’s brother Bassel.
“We went immediately to Arsal, where the Arsalis were very helpful.”
Ammatouri said he was sure that at least one or two of the ISIS members who kidnapped him had contacts in Arsal.
In close conjunction with MP Walid Jumblatt, the Ammatouri family successfully lobbied for their son’s release.
He was freed around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the day after he was kidnapped.
Ammatouri said his family had not paid any ransom to the kidnappers but did not know if a sum had been offered by Jumblatt, the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party.
The Druze leader had canceled all his appointments Wednesday, apparently clearing his schedule to deal with Ammatouri’s case.
“Walid Jumblatt took care of the whole thing,” he said.
Back in his Chouf village on the eve of Eid al-Adha, Ammatouri’s family and friends could be heard cheering in the background during his brief telephone call with The Daily Star.
“May God protect those [hostages] who are still with ISIS. I hope everyone will be released soon,” said Ammatouri breathlessly, taking a momentary break from receiving well-wishers.
“The whole country needs to be united and all the sects need to become one in order for the soldiers to be released.”
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri called Friday for a quick end to the ordeal of soldiers and policemen held hostage by Islamist militants, while urging the Lebanese to rally behind the Army in the battle against terrorism that is threatening to destabilize the country.
The Lebanese Army, meanwhile, dismantled a 50-kilogram bomb near a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Arsal, in an incident reflecting simmering tension following the deadly clashes between troops and ISIS and Nusra Front militants in the northeastern town in August.
Addressing the Lebanese and Arabs on the eve of the Eid al-Adha holiday which begins Saturday, Hariri said in a statement: “We renew our call for the need to end the [hostage] ordeal and quickly find solutions that would ensure the safe return of the soldiers to their families and their homeland.”
“Our joy with the Eid will not be complete before we see the kidnapped soldiers in the arms of their families. This is a responsibility worthy of national consensus that requires taking a firm decision regardless of the price,” he added.
In order for Lebanon to defeat terrorism and prevent attacks on its national sovereignty, Hariri said, the Lebanese must stand united behind the Army and security forces.
Referring to the threat of terrorism facing Lebanon following the Arsal fighting, he said: “ Lebanon today needs more than good wishes and intentions.
“It needs a decision to give priority to national interest over our sectarian and political interests. And this matter can only be achieved through restoring prestige to the state and its institutions and rallying around the Lebanese Army and legitimate security forces, because they are solely responsible for confronting terrorism and all forms of attacks on national sovereignty.”
ISIS and Nusra Front militants captured more than 30 Lebanese soldiers and policemen during their brief takeover of Arsal.
They have since released seven and executed three. The two groups are seeking to swap the Lebanese hostages with Islamist detainees held at Roumieh prison.
The Cabinet Thursday granted Prime Minister Tammam Salam full mandate to negotiate by “all available means” the release of the hostages, but stopped short of endorsing a swap deal with the militants as demanded by the captors and the hostages’ families. Instead, the Cabinet reiterated its commitment to engage in indirect negotiations with the militants holding at least 21 soldiers and policemen hostage through a Qatari-sponsored mediation.
Salam sought Friday to assure the families of the captured soldiers that the government was negotiating with the kidnappers to secure the release of the hostages. He spoke by telephone with Health Minister Wael Abu Faour who was meeting with the hostages’ families at their sit-in camp on the Dahr al-Baidar highway that links Beirut with the eastern Bekaa region.
“Prime Minister Tammam Salam has expressed to the [hostages’] families his constant concern since the beginning of the Arsal incidents to stay in contact with all the families of the heroic soldiers as part of attempts to take necessary measures and steps to protect their lives, including negotiations with the kidnappers, to secure their release,” a statement released by Salam’s office said.
Noting that progress in the negotiations required a high level of secrecy to facilitate reaching a solution, “Salam has not made promises he could not deliver, but adopted transparency in addressing this complicated, thorny and dangerous file,” the statement said.
The hostages’ families have staged street protests in the past few days, blocking several roads with burning tires, including the Dahr al-Baidar highway, to press for government action to end the hostage ordeal. They have repeatedly urged the government to enter into a swap deal with the militants to secure the release of their loved ones.
After meeting Abu Faour, the families issued a statement saying they will spend the Eid al-Adha holiday at their sit-in camp on the Dahr al-Baidar highway which they vowed to keep blocked until their loved ones are released. Meanwhile, the Army discovered a barrel packed with 50 kilos of explosives near a military checkpoint outside Arsal, the military said in a statement.
An Army unit beefed up security measures in and around the area of Ras al-Sarej on the periphery of Arsal after discovering that the barrel was filled with “explosive chemicals.” Security sources told The Daily Star that the barrel contained paint thinner, which may detonate under certain conditions.
A military expert who dismantled the explosives concluded that the bomb was primed to be detonated remotely, the statement said.
The National News Agency said the explosive container consisted of four compartments: two large ones and two smaller ones that were connected by a thin metal sheet. The Army was tipped off by a local resident who thought the container looked suspicious, the report said.
Last month, three soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb that targeted an Army truck in Arsal.
BEIRUT: With the announcement this week that Iran is planning to donate military equipment to the Lebanese Army, the Islamic Republic made the seemingly unusual move of backing the same armed force as its foes, the United States and Saudi Arabia.
It also marks the latest in a number of pledges from these countries specifically meant to help the Army in its fight to protect Lebanon from belligerent extremist groups lurking on the border, including ISIS.
But is this burst of aid from various directions merely an extension of the regional power struggle or a genuine effort to shore up Lebanon in the face of a common enemy? The answer is a bit of both, analysts say, with Hezbollah and ISIS major considerations for all sides.
“Lebanon’s and the LAF’s role in the fight against groups like ISIS and the Nusra Front has shaped an expansion in the scale, scope, lethality and quality of U.S. military transfers to Lebanon,” Aram Nerguizian of the Center for Strategic & International Studies told The Daily Star.
The American focus on building up the Army is “now principally driven by the U.S. imperative to preserve what little stability still remains in a shattered Levant security architecture,” he added.
Protecting Lebanon became all the more urgent following August’s battle for Arsal, in which Nusra Front and ISIS militants briefly seized control of the Lebanese border town, resulting in scores of deaths and the kidnapping of at least 30 soldiers and policemen, 21 of whom are still in captivity.
The militants are still there, camped out in the barren outskirts of Arsal, and with Hezbollah and the Syrian army consolidating their control of the adjacent Syrian Qalamoun region, it is only a matter of time until similar clashes break out again. At the same time, both groups – along with a third, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades – are believed to be seeking to build their support base in Lebanon in order to stir up sectarian unrest akin to that seen in Syria and Iraq.
As a result, bolstering Lebanon’s under-equipped and overwhelmed Army is now seen as so crucial that the U.S. is giving less importance to long-held fears that strengthening the Army could undermine Israel’s qualitative military edge.
“Many of the long-held concerns about transferring ever more capable combat systems to the LAF have grown increasingly moot in U.S. government circles,” Nerguizian said.
This has led to the transfer of “millions of rounds of small, medium and heavy ammunition for LAF ground troops” in 2014 alone, he added, including a sophisticated Hellfire missile variant that features a thermobaric warhead – i.e. one that uses oxygen from the air to create an explosion.
“As the LAF pressed on its fight against these jihadi militant groups, these and other ever more capable and sophisticated combat systems have become available to Lebanon,” he said. “The LAF and the U.S. government are discussing the fiscal feasibility of giving the LAF ground combat systems that many analysts would have dismissed outright as non-viable options for the LAF as recently as a year ago.”
With ISIS, a radical Sunni group that has sworn to persecute the region’s Shiites, at Lebanon’s back door, Iran too has stepped in to offer the Army help in fighting “extremist takfiri terrorism.”
“The donation comprises equipment that would help the Army in its heroic confrontations against this evil terrorism,” said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, during a visit to Lebanon this week.
The donation, which Shamkhani called “a token of love and appreciation for Lebanon and its brave Army,” is expected to be little more than just that, a token gesture. And that’s assuming that the donation is even approved by the Lebanese government – which is deeply divided over the idea – and proven not to be in violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran.
Either way, Nerguizian said that the U.S. was not worried about any challenges to its own influence or ties with the Army: “Barring a shift that Iran can neither sustain nor resource under U.N. sanctions, it cannot be a competitor [with the U.S.] when it comes to building up the LAF from a conventional military standpoint.”
But even though it seems everyone is on the same page about protecting Lebanon from extremist groups, there is still an elephant in the room preventing the Army from receiving all of the pledged assistance: Hezbollah, and by extension, the Saudi-Iranian regional tussle for power.
“I really doubt it [the Iranian donation] will come through; they are already supporting Hezbollah to the extreme,” said Mario Abou Zeid, a research analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center.
“Plus, Hezbollah’s main justification for having its weapons is that the Army is weak, so if the Army was strengthened there would be big questions over its [Hezbollah’s] arsenal. This could lead to another conflict. I can’t imagine them supporting two sides that may at some point conflict on the ground.
“ Hezbollah is also an integral part of Iranian foreign policy; I don’t think it would contribute to weakening it.”
Even more crucially, concerns over Hezbollah and over Lebanon’s four-month presidential vacuum are believed to be behind the delay in Saudi Arabia’s desperately needed $3 billion grant for French weapons, which was announced last December.
The Saudis “want to wait until Lebanon has a president who conforms to their interests and they can get guarantees that the weapons won’t end up in Hezbollah’s hands,” according to an anonymous French source cited in a story in Friday’s edition of Le Figaro.
Abou Zeid agreed that, for the international community as a whole, “Their main concern is about the end user of these weapons ... The international community is afraid that they will go to Hezbollah.”
He also pointed to something else: “The main obstacle in front of the Saudi grant is the absence of a president, plus Parliament is about to renew its mandate a second time, which is totally unconstitutional.”
Nerguizian echoed this point, arguing that the Saudi-French deal was in limbo “in part due to uncertainty surrounding who will be the country’s next president and, subsequently, the next LAF commander.”
The debate over who will fill Lebanon’s top Christian post, which has been empty since Michel Sleiman’s term ended in May, has reached a stalemate, with Iranian-backed March 8 and Saudi-aligned March 14 parties both putting forward rival candidates.
Many observers say that no resolution is expected before a thaw in Saudi-Iranian ties helps reach a compromise on a consensus candidate.
“Of course the Iranian versus Saudi offers is part of their geopolitical rivalry,” said Nadim Shehadi, an associate fellow of London-based policy institute Chatham House. “The difference is that before, Lebanon was the main theater of this confrontation, whereas now it is only one of the theaters and the less intense.”
BEIRUT: With the announcement this week that Iran is planning to donate military equipment to the Lebanese Army, the Islamic Republic made the seemingly unusual move of backing the same armed force as its foes, the United States and Saudi Arabia.
It also marks the latest in a number of pledges from these countries specifically meant to help the Army in its fight to protect Lebanon from belligerent extremist groups lurking on the border, including ISIS.
But is this burst of aid from various directions merely an extension of the regional power struggle or a genuine effort to shore up Lebanon in the face of a common enemy? The answer is a bit of both, analysts say, with Hezbollah and ISIS major considerations for all sides.
“Lebanon’s and the LAF’s role in the fight against groups like ISIS and the Nusra Front has shaped an expansion in the scale, scope, lethality and quality of U.S. military transfers to Lebanon,” Aram Nerguizian of the Center for Strategic & International Studies told The Daily Star.
The American focus on building up the Army is “now principally driven by the U.S. imperative to preserve what little stability still remains in a shattered Levant security architecture,” he added.
Protecting Lebanon became all the more urgent following August’s battle for Arsal, in which Nusra Front and ISIS militants briefly seized control of the Lebanese border town, resulting in scores of deaths and the kidnapping of at least 30 soldiers and policemen, 21 of whom are still in captivity.
The militants are still there, camped out in the barren outskirts of Arsal, and with Hezbollah and the Syrian army consolidating their control of the adjacent Syrian Qalamoun region, it is only a matter of time until similar clashes break out again. At the same time, both groups – along with a third, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades – are believed to be seeking to build their support base in Lebanon in order to stir up sectarian unrest akin to that seen in Syria and Iraq.
As a result, bolstering Lebanon’s under-equipped and overwhelmed Army is now seen as so crucial that the U.S. is giving less importance to long-held fears that strengthening the Army could undermine Israel’s qualitative military edge.
“Many of the long-held concerns about transferring ever more capable combat systems to the LAF have grown increasingly moot in U.S. government circles,” Nerguizian said.
This has led to the transfer of “millions of rounds of small, medium and heavy ammunition for LAF ground troops” in 2014 alone, he added, including a sophisticated Hellfire missile variant that features a thermobaric warhead – i.e. one that uses oxygen from the air to create an explosion.
“As the LAF pressed on its fight against these jihadi militant groups, these and other ever more capable and sophisticated combat systems have become available to Lebanon,” he said. “The LAF and the U.S. government are discussing the fiscal feasibility of giving the LAF ground combat systems that many analysts would have dismissed outright as non-viable options for the LAF as recently as a year ago.”
With ISIS, a radical Sunni group that has sworn to persecute the region’s Shiites, at Lebanon’s back door, Iran too has stepped in to offer the Army help in fighting “extremist takfiri terrorism.”
“The donation comprises equipment that would help the Army in its heroic confrontations against this evil terrorism,” said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, during a visit to Lebanon this week.
The donation, which Shamkhani called “a token of love and appreciation for Lebanon and its brave Army,” is expected to be little more than just that, a token gesture. And that’s assuming that the donation is even approved by the Lebanese government – which is deeply divided over the idea – and proven not to be in violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran.
Either way, Nerguizian said that the U.S. was not worried about any challenges to its own influence or ties with the Army: “Barring a shift that Iran can neither sustain nor resource under U.N. sanctions, it cannot be a competitor [with the U.S.] when it comes to building up the LAF from a conventional military standpoint.”
But even though it seems everyone is on the same page about protecting Lebanon from extremist groups, there is still an elephant in the room preventing the Army from receiving all of the pledged assistance: Hezbollah, and by extension, the Saudi-Iranian regional tussle for power.
“I really doubt it [the Iranian donation] will come through; they are already supporting Hezbollah to the extreme,” said Mario Abou Zeid, a research analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center.
“Plus, Hezbollah’s main justification for having its weapons is that the Army is weak, so if the Army was strengthened there would be big questions over its [Hezbollah’s] arsenal. This could lead to another conflict. I can’t imagine them supporting two sides that may at some point conflict on the ground.
“ Hezbollah is also an integral part of Iranian foreign policy; I don’t think it would contribute to weakening it.”
Even more crucially, concerns over Hezbollah and over Lebanon’s four-month presidential vacuum are believed to be behind the delay in Saudi Arabia’s desperately needed $3 billion grant for French weapons, which was announced last December.
The Saudis “want to wait until Lebanon has a president who conforms to their interests and they can get guarantees that the weapons won’t end up in Hezbollah’s hands,” according to an anonymous French source cited in a story in Friday’s edition of Le Figaro.
Abou Zeid agreed that, for the international community as a whole, “Their main concern is about the end user of these weapons ... The international community is afraid that they will go to Hezbollah.”
He also pointed to something else: “The main obstacle in front of the Saudi grant is the absence of a president, plus Parliament is about to renew its mandate a second time, which is totally unconstitutional.”
Nerguizian echoed this point, arguing that the Saudi-French deal was in limbo “in part due to uncertainty surrounding who will be the country’s next president and, subsequently, the next LAF commander.”
The debate over who will fill Lebanon’s top Christian post, which has been empty since Michel Sleiman’s term ended in May, has reached a stalemate, with Iranian-backed March 8 and Saudi-aligned March 14 parties both putting forward rival candidates.
Many observers say that no resolution is expected before a thaw in Saudi-Iranian ties helps reach a compromise on a consensus candidate.
“Of course the Iranian versus Saudi offers is part of their geopolitical rivalry,” said Nadim Shehadi, an associate fellow of London-based policy institute Chatham House. “The difference is that before, Lebanon was the main theater of this confrontation, whereas now it is only one of the theaters and the less intense.”
BEIRUT: Curfews imposed on Syrians in villages across Lebanon amount to a “violation of Lebanon’s international human rights obligations” and create a discriminatory and hostile environment for refugees, Human Rights Watch said in statement Friday.
The watchdog criticized municipalities for adopting the restrictive measures without coordinating with the central government.
In many cases, the curfews were introduced as knee-jerk reactions to the five-day battle between the Army and radical Syrian rebels in Arsal and the subsequent execution of three hostages they abducted during the August conflict.
“The authorities have presented no evidence that curfews for Syrian refugees are necessary for public order or security in Lebanon,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at HRW, noting that his organization had identified at least 45 municipalities that had imposed curfews over the past year.
The NGO observed that vigilante groups had been formed in many towns to help municipal police enforce the curfews from sunset until sunrise, raising concerns about abuses.
The statement cited several incidents of abuse and discriminatory behavior, including restricting refugees’ movements to purchase essentials such as medicine and food, and physical assault, including stabbings, when refugees were discovered in the streets after curfew.
“Municipalities should cease imposing these curfews, which they have no authority to require, and end practices that feed into a climate of discrimination against, and stereotyping of, Syrians in Lebanon,” Houry said.
BEIRUT: Although Speaker Nabih Berri and MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement staunchly oppose a new extension of Parliament’s mandate, the postponement appears to be inevitable given the fact that holding elections has become difficult for security reasons, parliamentary sources in the Progressive Socialist Party said Friday.
“Because it is difficult to hold parliamentary polls on time, the extension of Parliament’s term is bound to happen. But the duration of the delay is still the subject of debate and negotiation,” the sources told The Daily Star.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk last month reiterated that his ministry was not prepared to hold parliamentary elections, scheduled Nov. 16, given the precarious security conditions, in the strongest signal yet that the vote would be postponed, clearing the way for a new extension of Parliament’s mandate which expires on Nov. 20.
The sources supported Machnouk’s statement in which he said that the new extension of Parliament’s term should be for two years and seven months to make it a full four-year mandate after lawmakers, citing security concerns, extended the House’s term for 17 months in May 2013.
The sources hoped that during Parliament’s extended term, a new president should be elected, a new Cabinet should be formed and parliamentary elections should be held.
The sources lamented that the government of Prime Minister Tammam Salam has failed to solve the people’s daily problems, such as the water shortage, electricity cutoffs and bad roads.
Describing the situation in Lebanon as worrisome in general, the sources underlined the need for all rival political factions to be in contact with each other in order to discuss divisive issues and contain their differences.
“Resorting to the Lebanese state and upholding national unity are the only guarantee to protect our country and our national security,” the sources said.
Referring to Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb’s meeting this week with Aoun at the latter’s residence in Rabieh during which Chehayeb delivered a letter from PSP leader MP Walid Jumblatt, the sources denied media reports that the letter dealt with the presidential election, the case of the Lebanese soldiers and policemen held hostage by ISIS and Nusra Front, or the building of camps for Syrian refugees.
However, FPM sources said Jumblatt’s letter dealt with the issue of Electricite du Liban contract workers because the Energy Ministry is currently held by Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc.
The contract workers have been protesting for months inside the EDL building to demand full-time employment with the state-run company.
Through his letter, Jumblatt wanted to coordinate with Aoun over a proposal to solve this crisis which is threatening to leave most Lebanese areas without electricity, the FPM sources said.
The PSP sources said Jumblatt’s meetings recently with various political leaders had nothing to do with the presidential election. The sources dismissed as “pure speculation” media reports that Jumblatt was proposing a plan for the election of Aoun as a president for a two-year term during which parliamentary elections could be held.
Referring to the political deadlock that has left Lebanon without a president for more than four months, the sources said the crisis has become more complicated and there are no signs pointing to the election of a successor to former President Michel Sleiman soon.
“But sooner or later, Lebanon will have a Maronite Christian president,” the sources said, urging the rival political leaders to agree on a consensus president.
Meanwhile, political sources said the PSP leader’s moves, which are coordinated with his “permanent ally,” Berri, were designed to promote a candidate for the presidency who can be accepted by all the parties after strong candidates have exhausted their chances for the country’s top Christian post.
Hezbollah is kept updated on the Berri-Jumblatt moves concerning the presidential election, especially since a party delegation visited the PSP leader this week before the latter’s trip for France, the sources said.
While Berri and Jumblatt are seeking to promote a consensus candidate for the presidency, the sources said, Aoun probably can help in choosing one name among candidates viewed as consensus nominees.
In light of the global war on ISIS and other terrorist groups, a security and military consensus applies to Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi, the sources said.
The sources added that consensus over Kahwagi needs Aoun’s approval and a constitutional amendment to allow the Army chief to run for the presidency.
Political consensus, coupled with a compromise among regional powers with influence in Lebanon, requires a president who has political expertise and maintains balanced relations with all the political parties, like former Minister Jean Obeid, the sources said.
They added that a name who combines political, security and military consensus is Lebanon’s Ambassador to the Vatican Brig. George Khoury.
The sources said that moves linked to the extension of Parliament’s term would definitely lead to refocusing attention on the presidential election on the grounds that a House that can secure a quorum to extend its mandate should first meet to elect a new president.
