Hizbullah Slams 'Politicians who Justify Terror' after al-Qaa Blasts

Hizbullah on Monday condemned the dawn suicide bombings that rocked the northeastern border town of al-Qaa, lashing out at countries that “offer support” for “these terrorist murderers” and “some Lebanese politicians who launch justifications and excuses.”

“This crime is a new result of the terrorist, obscurantist thought that is spreading in the region like a plague and which has started to pose a major risk to its people,” said Hizbullah in a statement.

“It threatens Lebanon and its people without differentiation and regardless of sects and affiliations,” the party warned.

The bombings are also “the product of the clandestine and public support that is being offered by some countries and entities in the region and the world to these terrorist murderers in terms of arming, media assistance and political protection,” Hizbullah added.

It called for “combating this takfiri thought forcefully through exposing its goals and plots and preventing its spread and proliferation, unlike what is being done by some politicians and their entourage in Lebanon.”

These politicians “are conducting the biggest misinformation campaign to conceal the ugliness of this malicious thought,” Hizbullah charged.

“They are launching political statements that are full of justifications and excuses in a bid to cover up for the atrocities that are being committed by these terrorists,” it added.

Al-Qaa and the nearby Ras Baalbek are the only two towns with a Christian majority in the predominantly Shiite Hermel region, where Hizbullah holds sway.

The group has sent thousands of its fighters to Syria to bolster President Bashar Assad's forces against rebels and jihadist extremists trying to topple him.

Several deadly bombings have targeted Hizbullah's strongholds in the eastern Bekaa region and Beirut's southern suburbs since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011. Most of the attacks were claimed by extremist groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

The attacks killed scores of civilians and wounded hundreds.

Y.R.