LA Detects Arms’ Ship Heading to Syria’s Rebels

Local Editor

"As-Safir" Lebanese newspaper revealed Saturday that the Lebanese navy intercepted a ship on Friday carrying weapons for Syria's rebels army.

According to the daily, the vessel named "Lutf-Allah 2", had first sailed from Libya ahead of arriving at the Egyptian port of Alexandria to head later to the Lebanese port of Silata.

"The ship carried three containers loaded with light and medium weapons and ammunitions," the paper clarified, unveiling that "its owner is the Syrian Mohammed KH, its leader is his brother, while its agent on the Lebanese is Ahmad B. and its Savior of Customs is Mattawa T.," the daily reported.
It also mentioned that "the ship carried Kalashnikov and M16 machine guns, Rocket-Propelled Grenades"RPG", and LAW launchers."

It was also reported that "various caliber artillery shells, 23 mm anti-aircraft and ammunitions were found in the load in addition to the different TNT materials."

"As-Safir" commented on the incident stating that: "questions were raised about the easy passage of that vessel before the United Nations Interim Forces eyes noting that the first mandate of these forces is to control the smuggling of weapons into Lebanon."
"Did the vessel pass by the "Israeli" eyes?" "as-Safir" quoted security sources as wondering.

It recalled how "Israel" detained the "Beethoven" ship this past Sunday, which was en route from Beirut to Alexandria, claiming that might be carrying weapons for the Gaza Strip.

For its part, "al-Akhbar" daily uncovered that "a political Lebanese figure from Tripoli traveled to Egypt last month, where he held several meetings with the leaders of fighting groups in Libya, in the presence of some members of the Syrian National Council."

"The conferees agreed during the meeting to provide the so-called "Free Syrian Army" with anti-tank weapons at half of the market's original price," the daily's sources added. The sources "Al-Akhbar" quoted the Lebanese figure as assuring that "things are to be coordinated with the UNIFIL so that it will ignore the arms cargo that will arrive to the port of Tripoli."

Commenting on the incident, a Lebanese official stated to the daily that "the amount and the quality of the seized weapons indicate a serious escalation in the Syrian crisis, in terms of the fact that the supply of rebels in Syria crossed all the trade line."
"This means that there is a big decision at the regional level, and perhaps an international one, to lift the level of arming militant groups against the Syrian regime, with what that means from the intention of straining the situation behind the Lebanese border," the Lebanese official warned.


Source: As-Sair, Al-Akhbar, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org