DAILY SCOPE: Qahwaji Vows Lebanon Will Not be Toppled

Local Editor

NEWSPAPERS HEADLINES:

AN-NAHAR:

Army Attains Unprecedented Progress in Jroud Region

Cabinet Crisis Negotiations towards Solution

ASSAFIR:

Qahwaji: We will Not Allow Takfiris to Topple Lebanon

New War Rules with Terrorists: March towards Attack!

AL-JOUMHOURIAH:

Unprecedented Ops. By the Lebanese Army

Conesus on Way to Crystallization

Papers on Friday shed light on the Lebanese army and its pre-emptive action through which it got the upper hand in the battle with the terrorist groups. The army had executed a military pre-emptive attack against the Takfiri groups in the Ras Baalbeck area in order to control the significant hills around Tel Hamra. Meanwhile, the government still awaits reaching a consensus on a mechanism that would solve the governmental crisis.

As-SAfir newspaper quoted Lebanese Forces General Jean Qahwaji as saying on Friday that the Lebanese Army's posture will not remain defensive in its war against terrorism.

"The Army will not simply remain a deterrent Army, but will go in for [offense] with a cutting sword," Qahwaji told local daily. His remarks came a day after the Lebanese Army drove terrorists out of two strategic hilltop positions along the northeastern frontier with Syria in a pre-emptive operation that left at least three militants killed and four soldiers lightly wounded.

Qahwaji stressed that the Lebanese Army will remain the sole guarantor of Lebanon's stability, noting "The Army will protect the country from any danger. Lebanon won't be a supportive environment for terrorism."

"We will not let takfiri terrorists defeat us," Qahwaji vowed, adding that the war against terrorists was open-ended.

The Lebanese army advanced on Thursday on the outskirts of the northeastern villages of Ras Baalbek and Arsal, establishing new checkpoints and surveillance posts, in a "swift" operation that left five troops wounded.

The military said in a communique that "army units deployed at dawn on Thursday on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek and fully controlled the heights of Sadr al-Jarash and Harf al-Jarash."

The statement said that soldiers inflicted heavy losses among the ranks of the militants, seizing a quantity of heavy and light arms, bombs, ammunition and military equipment.

Speaking to the Daily Star, a senior Army source highlighted the importance of the two hilltop sites.

"These hills are of great strategic importance. First, troops can defend all Army posts behind them from these hills.

Second, today's [Thursday's] step will prevent terrorists from sneaking to attack Army posts or plant explosives," the source said.

He added that the Army's action came in light of information that militants positioned in the two hills were plotting attacks.

"We found explosive devices and explosive belts in these hills. This means that fighters used to prepare suicide bombers there and send them to attack the Army or send fighters to plant bombs."

The source said that the Army did not find bodies of dead militants in the hills.

On another note, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said some members of the cabinet of paralyzing the government for linking its work with the presidential elections despite their insistence that their aim is to back the PM.

"Some of them linked the cabinet work with the presidential elections. So we reached a state of paralysis," Salam told as-Safir daily published on Friday.

Salam was referring to a grouping led by former President Michel Suleiman, which has so far met twice in less than a week to reject an amendment to the decision-making mechanism that the PM is proposing.

"The two issues are not linked," he stressed.

Source: al-Ahed news