Officials Praise Army's Security Achievement, Describe it as Sole Protector of Nation
Lebanese officials hailed on Wednesday the Lebanese army and the Intelligence directorate on its security accomplishment by arresting a most-wanted fugitive and seizing two explosive-laden vehicles.
President Michel Suleiman praised the Lebanese army on the arrest of Naim Abbas, a leader in the Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades, described as the group's number two man in Lebanon, and seizing two booby-trapped cars in Beirut and the Bekaa.
He expressed his staunch support to the “army and security agencies to follow up and detain all the culprits.”
Military experts defused on Wednesday a booby-trapped vehicle in Beirut's Corniche al-Mazraa neighborhood after the army announced the arrest of Abbas, it also intercepted another explosive-laden vehicle in the Bekaa region.
Speaker Nabih Berri stressed before his visitors the importance of supporting the military institution in its war on terror.
For his part, Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam commended the military's achievement in a telephone conversation with Army commander General Jean Qahwaji.
“Lebanon was saved from yet another disaster that the power of evil was plotting,” Salam told Qahwaji.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati applauded the Lebanese army for carrying out an “extraordinary security accomplishment.”
“Once again the Lebanese army, in cooperation with the rest of security agencies, proved that it is the side that is safeguarding Lebanon and the Lebanese,” Miqati said in a statement issued by his press office.
He pointed out that the army is capable of protecting the nation from the malicious plots against it.
Miqati urged all citizens to be vigilant at this critical stage in the country's history.
Qahwaji briefed the premier on the details of the security operations carried out by the army on Wednesday.
Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri contacted Qahwaji and lauded the achievements of the military.
The former premier considered it an “opportunity to grant the security agencies the required trust to enable them to carry out their tasks amid this delicate and critical stage that Lebanon and the region are passing through.”
Meanwhile, head of al-Mustabqal parliamentary bloc ex-PM Fouad Saniora lauded “the security achievement made by security agencies, especially the Lebanese Army, which discovered booby-trapped cars and arrested terrorists who were plotting terrorist operations in Lebanon.”
“This success proves an essential fact, which is that Lebanese security agencies are capable to achieve advanced steps in protecting citizens through unveiling crimes and criminals – when they want and when they are able to do so,” Saniora added in a statement.
He also hoped “this advanced achievement will be completed by unveiling the rest of criminals who are involved in terrorist crimes against the Lebanese people.”
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