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Geagea: Attacks Aim to Drive LF, Allies into Reacting

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea slammed on Friday a grenade attack on the office of the LF in Keserwan and advised against overreacting.
Late Thursday, unknown assailants threw a hand grand on the Lebanese Forces office in the Kfour-Keserwan causing material damages. The explosion came a few days after a similar attack on the LF's office in Sin el-Fil.

Reacting to the incident, Geagea asked LF "partisans and supporters to uphold absolute calm." The attack could be "an attempt to drag the Lebanese Forces, its friends and allies into specific reactions," he warned, after meeting with Qatari Ambassador to Lebanon Saad bin Ali al-Muhannadi.

Detailing the attack, Geagea told reporters a sonic bomb was thrown inside the premises of the LF office in Kfour-Keserwan "causing massive material damages."

He told reporters Interior Minister Ziad Baroud assured him in a telephone call that "extensive investigations were underway to identify the culprits." Baroud also asked Geagea to brief security services if any new information emerges on the attack, the LF leader said.

Slamming "political violence," Geagea said the attacks on the LF "hold significant implications." He added that the explosions, twinned with demands by some politicians for upcoming elections to be divided into phases, "raise questions marks over the intention of some to disrupt the polls."

Asked whether he was fearful of a delay in the elections, he said: "Till now, and before we receive more accurate information, I can only place the grenade attacks … in the context of a plan to drive the Forces into reactions that can only aggravate the security situation." Such aggravation, Geagea added, would naturally lead to the "postponement of the elections."

He refused to speculate over who he thought was behind the attacks on the LF saying "we have no indicators allowing us to point fingers. But there is no doubt that these actions aim to draw a foggy image around the security situation in Lebanon and are linked, one way or the other, to the electoral process."

Beirut, 20 Feb 09, 17:59


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