Al-Hassan: Dangerous to Exploit Terrorist Crime for Sectarian Incitement

Interior Minister Raya al-Hassan on Friday warned that “it is dangerous to exploit a terrorist crime for sectarian and political incitement,” in reference to the deadly Tripoli attack on security forces by an Islamic State-influenced militant.

Speaking at a press conference, al-Hassan said the gunman, Abdul Rahman Mabsout, roamed Tripoli’s streets on a motorbike after leaving his house carrying six hand grenades and a machinegun.

“He was born in 1991, he hailed from the al-Haddadin neighborhood and had a criminal record of drug abuse, assault and battery,” she added.

Defending remarks that she and Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman had voiced in the wake of the attack, which were criticized by several political parties and segments of the public opinion, the minister said “the lone wolf expression is used by all security agencies to indicate that a person had carried out a criminal act, including terrorist operations.”

“This type of operations happens in all countries in the world and criminals who kill in cold blood are mentally unbalanced in the metaphorical and not the medical sense of the term,” al-Hassan added.

“Tripoli has proved, before and after the terrorist operation, that it renounces all forms of extremism and it has been shown that there is no incubator for terrorism,” she went on to say.

Al-Hassan also revealed that it has been decided to set up an operations room in every region for overseeing any security crisis.

The meetings would take place “under the judiciary’s supervision and in the presence of a judge,” she noted.

Riding a motorcycle, Mabsout fired on police and army vehicles in different parts of Tripoli on Monday night, killing two police officers and two soldiers and wounding several others before blowing himself up later when confronted by troops.

Some media reports say Mabsout was a former member of the Islamic State group who fought with the extremist movement in Syria while other reports say that he had not managed to join the jihadists.

He was, however, detained upon returning to Lebanon in 2016 before being released a year later.