Charbel: 800-Strong Joint Force to Begin Deploying in Dahieh on Monday Afternoon

A joint force of 800 men composed of soldiers from the army and security services will begin their deployment on Monday afternoon in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where they will take over security at checkpoints set up by Hizbullah in the wake of two bombings that hit its stronghold, caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said on Sunday.

Following the blasts that rocked Bir al-Abed and Rweiss, Hizbullah turned the southern suburbs into a fortress with guards in civilian clothes policing the streets, stopping and searching cars and asking motorists for their IDs.

Charbel said the joint force "will have the primary goal of checking suspect vehicles and the identities of suspicious persons."

"No one else will be authorized to be present at the checkpoints," said Charbel.

"The state must extend its control over all of the Lebanese territory," he added.

Hizbullah set up its own security checkpoints in Beirut's southern suburbs after the bombings which wounded more than 50 people on July 9 and killed 27 and injured around 300 on August 15.

Days later an Agence France Presse correspondent who toured the area witnessed guards policing the streets, including some in uniform from the pro-Hizbullah "Union of Municipalities of the Southern Suburbs."

The Lebanese army is also present in the area and has a barracks in the Bir al-Abed neighborhood.

Hizbullah has found itself targeted in Lebanon over its involvement in Syria, where it has dispatched fighters to battle alongside President Bashar Assad's forces against rebels determined to topple him.

MP Mohammed Raad, head of the Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc, stressed Sunday that Hizbullah “is the first party to welcome the decision of the state security agencies to assume their security missions in Beirut's southern suburbs.”

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is due to give a televised speech on Monday night.