Top Officials Defend Army as 'Shield' of Lebanon's Sovereignty after Sidon Attacks
Lebanese leaders condemned on Monday the attacks on the army in the southern city of Sidon, defending the military as the shield of security and sovereignty and calling for unity with it.
President Michel Suleiman condemned the attacks as “terrorist crimes,” saying they came “at a time the Lebanese are looking to the army in all regions as the guarantor of security, stability and civil peace.”
A presidential statement said Suleiman was in contact with officials “to take all measures to fight terrorism.”
He also urged the Lebanese to be united.
An army communique said three suspects were passing on foot through a checkpoint at al-Awwali bridge at Sidon's entrance at 9:00 pm Sunday when a soldier asked for their identification papers.
One of the suspects threatened him with a grenade, which blew up when the soldier opened fire on him, it said.
The suspect was killed and two soldiers at the checkpoint were injured. The other two suspects escaped.
Forty five minutes later, a Palestinian blew himself up near an army checkpoint in the Majdelyoun area, killing himself and a sergeant, and wounding a soldier.
Two other Lebanese suspects, who were in the Envoy four-wheeler carrying them, also died when members of the checkpoint opened fire on them.
“We condemn these two terrorist attacks … that targeted the military institution, which defends Lebanon and the Lebanese, and constitutes the shield of sovereignty and independence,” Caretaker Premier Najib Miqati said in a statement.
He appealed for support to the army and the rest of the security forces, saying “no one should be allowed to tamper with security and target the role of the military institution.”
Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam also issued a condemnation statement, calling for a “swift” probe to find the collaborators of the dead suspects and punish them.
“The army was and will always be the defensive structure of Lebanon and the Lebanese, and the guarantor of their security and stability,” he said in a statement.
“Any attack on its members under any circumstance is a bald assault on the Lebanese people and the entire nation,” he said.
Salam urged the Lebanese, in general, and Sidon residents, in particular, to “support the army and facilitate its mission” to stop those plotting to harm the institution and cause a gap between it and the people.
Al-Mustaqbal movement leader Saad Hariri said the attacks were at the top of the list of “chaos.”
The former premier called for unity with the army, saying it was “the duty of every citizen who believes in the state and the role of the military institution to be in solidarity with it.”
“Sidon will not allow under any circumstance to be dragged again to a confrontation with the Lebanese army,” he said.
He was referring to bloody clashes between supporters of Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir and the military in the coastal city last June.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea also condemned the “blatant” attack against troops, considering that Sunday's events reassert that weapons must be exclusively in the hands of the state.
"The state must be the only party allowed to use arms on Lebanese territories,” Geagea said in a released statement.
He added that the state must also "coercively" prevent putting security and social conditions at risk, “to avoid an aggravation of the Lebanese people's misery.”
"The possession and the use of arms trigger people to get armed and soldiers and the Lebanese are paying the price.”
Meanwhile, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi considered that “attacks against the military institution are attacks against the entire Lebanese entity.”
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