Huge Army Deployment on Northern Border with Syria

Columns of Lebanese army tanks and personnel carriers deployed in the towns of Hnaider and Knaisseh on the northern and northeastern border with Syria in an effort to curb arms smuggling, eyewitnesses said.

TV footage showed the residents of the Wadi Khaled area welcoming the army’s deployment.

The deployment is part of a campaign that the army started late last week “to preserve the security of citizens.

“The military’s presence throughout the nation is a very natural phenomenon in addition to being a comprehensive popular and nationalistic demand,” the army has said in a communique.

The army command also urged Lebanese politicians not to shove the military institution in the political bickering after March 14-led opposition officials accused it of deploying in northern areas bordering Syria at the behest of the Assad regime.

The officials have said the deployment was aimed at arresting armed men allegedly belonging to the rebel Free Syrian Army which is fighting Syria’s government troops.

But the army said in its communique that it is “keen on protecting the residents of northern areas against any attack on their lives or their properties no matter what the source was in parallel with its firm decision to prevent the spread of arms inside Lebanese territories.”