Mashnouq Warns of Further Security Deterioration, Accuses ISIL of Tripoli Attack
Interior Minister al-Mashnouq warned on Sunday that the security situation will deteriorate in Lebanon during the upcoming stage due to the ongoing war in neighboring country Syria, accusing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant of standing behind Tripoli's attack.
“Coordination is strong between security agencies to encounter the upcoming stage,” Mashnouq told reporters after a meeting for the northern city of Tripoli's sub-Security Council a day after a double suicide bombing that targeted Jabal Mohsen neighborhood.
The minister stressed that the Lebanese can only combat terrorism if they were united.
Two suicide bombers killed nine people and wounded 37 others in an attack on a cafe in the flashpoint Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen.
Al-Qaida-affilliate al-Nusra Front claimed responsibility for the blasts via Twitter.
“A cafe belonging to the (Alawite Arab) Democratic Party in Jabal Mohsen was targeted with a double martyrdom attack, to avenge the Sunnis in Syria and Lebanon," read the tweet.
Panicked survivors tried to flee the scene of the attack when a second suicide attacker arrived, and blew himself up too.
However, Mashnouq said that preliminary reports indicate that ISIL is behind the attack.
"The security agencies are capable and will continue to carry out their duties to combat terrorism."
Lebanese security forces believe the bombers lived in Mankubeen, a majority Sunni neighborhood just 500 meters away from Jabal Mohsen.
They were identified as Taha Samir al-Khayyal and Bilal Mohammed al-Meraayan.
The Arab Democratic Party is the main group representing the Alawite minority in Lebanon.
Mashnouq also pointed out that former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who is the head of the Sunni al-Mustaqbal Movement, will compensate the residents of Jabal Mohsen.
“The Hariri foundation will reconstruct all the damage.”
Earlier on Sunday, Mashnouq described the twin suicide bombings as “brutal,” vowing to confront terrorism with all possible means.
“The cruel attacks in Jabal Mohsen target all the Lebanese,” Mashnouq said in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper.
He urged the Lebanese to remain united to avert all terrorist schemes.
Later on the minister inspected the site of the double suicide bombings.
The country's second city Tripoli has seen frequent violence pitting gunmen in the Alawite district of Jabal Mohsen against neighboring Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh.
Fighting between the two districts in recent years has killed scores of people, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire.
Though the tensions have their roots in the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war, sectarian hatred has spiraled ever since the outbreak of a revolt in neighboring Syria.
Residents of Jabal Mohsen support Syria's President Bashar Assad, who belongs to an Alawite clan, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, that has ruled the war-torn country for more than 40 years.
People in Bab al-Tabbaneh support the rebels, who like the Syrian population are mostly Sunni.
Since October, the army has deployed heavily in Tripoli, detaining hundreds of people in an attempt to stem the violence.
On August 23, 2013, bomb attacks struck two mosques in Tripoli, killing and wounding dozens of people.
Some of those suspected of involvement in the attacks were from Jabal Mohsen.
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