Another Soldier Announces Defection to al-Nusra Front

The Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front released Monday a video in which Lebanese soldier Omar Khaled Shamtiyeh announces his defection from the army.

Shamtiyeh accused the military of being “subordinate to” Hizbullah and of “killing the Sunni youths” in the North without any valid justification.

“I announce my defection from this tyrant army and joining the jihadists of al-Nusra Front,” says Shamtiyeh, who was a member of the 2nd Artillery Regiment and used to serve at the al-Madfoun checkpoint on the coastal highway in the North.

The soldier repeated the same arguments voiced by the troops who defected in recent months, claiming that the army is under the control of Hizbullah and alleging sectarian discrimination against “Sunni troops” in the military institution.

“Sunnis, especially bearded men or those who hail from Tripoli, face insults, humiliation and arbitrary arrest” when they try to cross al-Madfoun checkpoint, Shamtiyeh charges in the video.

“What prompted me to speed up my defection was the army's storming of the houses of the Sunni community in al-Beddawi and violating the sanctity of the houses and our niqab-wearing sisters,” he added.

On October 11, Lebanese soldier Abdul Qader Akkoumi announced his defection to the Islamic State jihadist group, in a YouTube video.

Last week, the soldier Abdullah Shehadeh, who had defected to Nusra on October 10, urged troops to leave the army and “join the jihadists.”

The increasing defection of troops from the army is not expected to affect the military, which comprises around 60,000 soldiers, according to military sources.

The sources have told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that “the Lebanese army, like any other army, might witness some defections, but the focus on the recent cases was compelled by the fact that the fugitive soldiers defected and joined the ranks of terrorist organizations.”

“The fleeing of such soldiers doesn't impact the military negatively but rather cleans the institution of such models,” the sources added.

Shehadeh, who hails from the town of Mashha, defected on Friday hours after Nusra published a video in which the soldier Mohammed Antar announced that he had "joined the jihadists."

The first time a Lebanese soldier defected to the Nusra Front in neighboring Syria was in July. Corporal Atef Mohammed Saadeddine claimed in a video that his move came as a result of the injustice against Sunnis in Lebanon.

Islamists in the country claim that Sunnis are facing harassment by the army, which they accuse of working “under the command” of Hizbullah.

The Shiite party has sent thousands of fighters to Syria to help the regime of President Bashar Assad against the rebels fighting his troops.

Hizbullah members have engaged in bloody gunbattles with al-Nusra Front, the Islamic State group and other Syrian opposition fighters in Syria and the border region with Lebanon.

The jihadist groups took several Lebanese soldiers and policemen hostage in August and executed three of them following deadly clashes in and around the Bekaa border town of Arsal.

Y.R.

M.T.