Geagea, Gemayel react after LF official abducted, killed in Ain Ebel

A veteran Lebanese Forces official has been abducted and killed in the southern town of Ain Ebel, his hometown, CCTV footage and a forensic doctor’s report said, days after reports said that the man had died in a traffic accident.

“The forensic doctor’s report says that Elias Hasrouni was strangled and hit with a gun butt on the head and on his rib cage, which resulted in the fracture of his ribs and their penetration of a lung, before the body was thrown near the car’s location,” al-Jadeed reported on Wednesday.

The CCTV footage shows two SUVs encircling Hasrouni’s vehicle and individuals getting out of them and entering the man’s vehicle before the three cars drive away.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea meanwhile said in a statement that Hasrouni was the victim of an “elaborate ambush” set up by “six to nine individuals.”

“They took him to another place and killed him there,” Geagea said, noting that “this new information has become in the hands of security agencies, especially the Lebanese Army’s Intelligence Directorate and the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch.”

“It is required to unveil the perpetrators’ identities as soon as possible, in light of the sensitivity of the situation in Ain Ebel and the neighboring villages and in light of the repercussions that might result from this crime should the culprits remain unknown,” the LF leader added.

Kataeb Party leader Sami Gemayel for his part described Hasrouni as a “heroic resistance fighter” who was killed “in a militia operation in his town Ain Ebel.”

“We will not demand to know the truth, seeing as it is clear as the sun in a security zone whose affiliation is well-known … The country is hijacked, the Lebanese are hostages and we are in a state of resilience and resistance and they will not defeat our resolve,” Gemayel added.

A statement issued by Ain Ebel residents meanwhile blamed “the killing and treachery machine” for the crime, noting that Hasrouni’s “assassination” will “reopen the file of the comrades Roger Safi and Nakhle Atallah, who also fell in the South in mysterious incidents.”

“Those who are supposed to be real partners in Lebanon are practicing the role of the real partners of the enemies, exclusively excelling in murder, liquidation, treachery and assassination,” the statement said.

“Those who assassinated all of March 14’s leaders, the intellectual Lokman Slim and the hero Elias Hasrouni are neither the Israeli enemy nor the Japanese Red Army, but rather the enemies of the interior, who only know the language of killing, rockets and the 100,000 fighters,” the statement added, in an apparent accusation against Hezbollah.