Hizbullah Denies Report Linking Party to ISF Arms Raid
Hizbullah on Monday denied media reports claiming that party officials had tried in vain to mediate to prevent security forces from seizing arms from the home of a party member in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
“Nizar al-Husseini is neither an official nor a member in the party,” Hizbullah’s media relations unit said in a statement.
“Remarks that a Hizbullah group had clashed with the Internal Security Forces and prevented them from performing their duty are false and baseless, as neither a clash nor a prevention had taken place,” the statement added.
A security source told An Nahar daily published Monday that weapons and four stolen vehicles were seized from “Hizbullah member Nizar al-Husseini” on Sunday after a BMW X5 stolen from the Beirut thoroughfare of Hamra was discovered outside his house in the southern suburb of Bir al-Abed.
The source said security forces found the vehicle through the GPRS system, adding that when they reached Bir al-Abed three Hizbullah gunmen arrived there and argued with the policemen for lack of coordination with the party on the raid.
According to the report, the dispute turned ugly when a gunman shot an officer in the foot.
Security forces insisted on carrying out their task and seized the car of the three gunmen, the X5 and four other stolen vehicles, the report said.
Although al-Husseini escaped, the patrol arrested his son and seized from his house a large number of weapons and ammunition in addition to a device that decodes new cars, said the report.
“Hizbullah officials tried to mediate by telling us that the seized arms belong to the party but we insisted on confiscating them and that’s what happened,” the source told the newspaper.
Later on Monday, the ISF issued a statement confirming that the raid and the clash had taken place. However, the statement did not mention anything about the political affiliation of the home’s owner or the gunmen who it said arrived on the scene in a black Kia Sportage.
Security forces seized “a quantity of weapons, explosives, military uniforms -- similar to those of the army, ISF and other fatigues – and advanced electronic devices,” the statement said.
They also seized “four stolen BMWs from the parking of the building,” it added.
“The probe is ongoing under the supervision of the relevant judicial authorities and the search continues to arrest the rest of the gang’s members,” it noted.
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