World Tribune.com

Tensions on rise as Syria sends fighers into Lebanon

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, October 27, 2005

Lebanese security sources have reported continued weapons smuggling and insurgency infiltration from Syria into Lebanon.

The sources said Syria has employed Palestinian fighters to exacerbate tensions with Lebanon.

On Tuesday, a Lebanese Army contractor was killed in a shootout with Palestinian insurgents near the border with Syria. The civilian contractor had accompanied a Lebanese Army patrol along the Syrian border near Helweh in southeastern Lebanon.

On Wednesday, the Lebanese Army brought hundreds of troops as well as 10 M-48 main battle tanks and artillery to Helweh. Lebanese sources said the army has also surrounded a military camp of the Syrian-sponsored Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command in the Bekaa Valley.

The Lebanese sources said Palestinian fighters opened fire on the Lebanese patrol from Syria. They identified the Palestinians as members of the Syrian-sponsored Fatah Uprising. The group maintains a training base in Helweh.

Fatah Uprising was established in 1983 as a Syrian-aligned group that bolted from the movement headed by then-Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat. The group has been based in Damascus and led by Abu Mussa, whose real name is Col. Said Mussa.

This was the second death of a Lebanese national along the Syrian frontier in October. On Oct. 2, a Lebanese farmer was killed by unidentified Syrian gunmen in the northeastern Lebanese border village of Aarsal.

The Lebanese sources said the military contractor had been conducting a survey of Lebanon's border with Syria when he was struck by a bullet in his chest. Beirut has urged Damascus to delineate their mutual border as part of an effort to prevent infiltration.

Syria was said to have also masterminded a series of bombing attacks in the Beirut region in early 2005. Officials said three bombing suspects claimed they had been hired by Syrian Brig. Gen. Jamaa Jamaa, who was a leading member of Syria's intelligence network in Lebanon.

Jean Fahd, a government delegate to Lebanon's military tribunal, said Jamaa, through an unidentified third party, offered to pay the suspects to plant bombs in Beirut. The suspects said the bombings were meant to delay a Syrian troop withdrawal, which was completed in April 2005.


Copyright © 2005 East West Services, Inc.

Print this Article Print this Article Email this article Email this article Subscribe to this Feature Free Headline Alerts


Google
Search Worldwide Web Search WorldTribune.com Search WorldTrib Archives