Two Rockets Hit Baabda Area, One near Presidential Palace
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Two rockets fell in the Baabda area on Thursday evening, one of them near the presidential palace, in the third such incident in less than two months.
“A rocket fell near the (army's) Command and Staff College in al-Rayhaniyeh as another rocket hit the garden of Elham Freiha's house, and both were fired from al-Mwanseh area in Dhour Aramoun,” state-run National News Agency reported.
MTV said the rockets were fired from “a barren area in Souk al-Gharb” near Aley.
A security source told MTV the attack caused no casualties among military personnel or civilians.
“One of the rockets fell around 50 meters away from the defense ministry” in Fayyadiyeh, a suburb of Beirut, MTV reported.
Al-Jadeed television said a rocket fell around 100 meters away from the presidential palace as Agence France Presse said it landed around 100 meters away from the palace's back entrance.
“The house of the army's intelligence director (Brig. Gen. Edmond Fadel) is close to the house of the Freiha family where one of the rockets landed,” al-Jadeed said.
MTV said one of the rockets landed near the house of the Saudi ambassador but failed to explode.
Earlier in the day, Lebanon marked the 68th Army Day, with President Michel Suleiman saying it was time for the Lebanese state and the army to be the sole decision-makers on the use of the nation's capabilities.
“It has become urgent to approve a defense strategy after the resistance's arms went beyond Lebanon's borders,” Suleiman said during a ceremony marking anniversary of the Lebanese army’s founding, in an allusion to Hizbullah’s military intervention in Syria.
On June 21, two rocket launch pads were found in the Kesrouan area of Ballouneh after a rocket exploded in the Baabda town of Araya. The second rocket failed to launch.
Sources told Naharnet back then that the relevant security and military authorities and the Presidential Guard were scouring the area, without ruling out that the presidential palace could have been the target of the rocket.
In May, two rockets slammed into the Hizbullah stronghold of Beirut's southern suburbs, wounding four people.
02 August 2013, 02:04
414
Suleiman makes a speech against HA's arms, then this happens...coincidence?
02 August 2013, 06:46
26
You are right. The Presidents speech today was not well received in the Rathole
02 August 2013, 08:01
24
and hizbushaitan does not fire at the army or the presidency ..... :)
their lies and dubious acts will cost them a lot soon....
02 August 2013, 12:55
13
what a shock -- the fpm thrower doubts anything about his m8ers, but is quick to accuse the other sides of their guilt.
did you have to take the hypocritic oath to become a member?
02 August 2013, 13:12
10
how dare you doubt their random accusations ya FT???
you clearly are a vicious basij who feeds on baby blood and seeks to destroy mankind
02 August 2013, 03:18
93
Come on guys. Do you honestly think that they'd send such an overt message right after the speech. They're not that stupid. It's the Salafist/Palestinians doing this to make it look like it's the HA.
02 August 2013, 06:55
24
There are no salafists in and around Souk-El-Gharb. The area there is HA stronghold (with Jumblat towns being around the HA strongholds.
02 August 2013, 12:57
20
lol, did you personally go there and check every person to make sure that there were no salafists?
you guys are hilariously ridiculous, not only is souk el gharb not an HA stronghold, but FYI salafis can move around, like in a car for instance! (3an jad!)
02 August 2013, 06:22
26
The President makes a speech for the good of the country, tells the truth and this is the response he gets.
02 August 2013, 07:40
13
I think we can all agree on the fact that whoever did this to our Lebanese Presidential Palace, our Republica is thrash!
Good night/day everyone.
02 August 2013, 08:04
11
See how this incident got all of you wondering who did it? To be quite truthful, if Lebanon had proper investigation/intelligence agencies and if other comparable global agencies (FBI, CIA, NSA, FSB, ISI, etc) could solve the most unattainable cases, I'm sure our agencies--with a tad little investigation effort-- would be able to figure out what two idiots carried out a rocket launcher up a hill and used it.
Whoever did this obviously wants to destabilize the country to result in stirring up an internal war for that matter. The rockets--most likely-- were aiming at the presidential palace but the idiots who were selected for this particular job did not know any better.
02 August 2013, 12:05
14
I Will Like to hear Aoun condemning this attack. Will he do it or his corrupt support to the terrorist organization hizbullah will prevent him to do so.
03 August 2013, 06:01
10
I doubt very much HA would resort to launching rockets at b3abda to send a message to the president. HA has demonstrated on more than one occasion that it is perfectly capable of asserting its will and that it is the sole decision maker in Lebanon, thus no need for such shenanigans. In my humble opinion, this is not their handy work and the timing is awfully suspicious. Deductive reasoning leads me to home in on the reasonable assumption that the group who benefits the most from this action is behind it and not likely HA.
