 Outraged Lebanese took to the streets to protest Monday after militants from a pro-Syrian Palestinian faction shot and seriously wounded two Lebanese municipal workers outside the group's base on the outskirts of Beirut. On the eve of the most important celebration for the Muslims, Eid al-Adha, guards of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command at Naameh shot Maroun Yazbeck and Hanna al-Ghoseini, while they were collecting municipal taxes. One of the workers, Yazbeck, 24, was seriously wounded by a gun shot above the heart and was taken to Makassed Hospital. Ghoseini was shot in the legs and taken to Hammoud hospital in Sidon.
The PFLP-GC said one of its fighters had "fired at the municipality car's tires because it drove off quickly" after being stopped at a base checkpoint. "The two men were questioned at the entrance to the base by one of our men who asked for their identity papers and why they had come," said the group's spokesman Anwar Raja. "We still have their papers," he said, adding that they had an agreement with the Lebanese Army for no one to approach the base.
But according to Daily Star sources, the Palestinians were "too widespread and shouldn't have been that far from the base. They've been spreading out for a while and not staying where they're meant to."
| Ever think of closing the camp and evicting them? |
Interviewed by The Daily Star, Elias Abu Issa, the driver who drove Ghoseini to Hammoud Hospital said the two wounded men were doing their job when seven armed men stopped them and asked for their identity cards. "After one of the armed men read their names, he told the other militants to take Ghoseini and Yazbeck into the 'tunnels'," Abu Issa said. "At that point, Ghoseini, who was behind the wheel, quickly drove off, which triggered the militants to open fire at the car before it reached the Army post in Naameh with both men in critical condition after being hit," he added.
| That's the risk of driving off (see the American journo kidnap story) but if they had gone to the tunnels, they'd be dead for sure. |
Talking to The Daily Star, Walid Jumblatt, who had demanded Saturday that Palestinian factions outside refugee camps be disarmed, said that the presence of weapons outside refugee camps was no longer acceptable. "There is no security or political justification for the presence of this 'military fort' in Naameh and Haret Naameh," Jumblatt said. "It is simply part of the plan to create security chaos in the country, whether in south Lebanon through the rockets fired recently toward Israel or through this incident in Naameh today."
| I can't see the reason for arms inside the camps for that matter. Leb has an army. |
| Gotta have arms to have Dire Revenge™. |
Jumblatt said that Syrian intelligence was running Palestinian arms outside refugee camps. "This Palestinian fort in Naameh, which is actually run by the Syrians, is only there to terrorize people and poses a serious threat for the area," he said.
In his turn, Free Patriotic Movement leader and MP Michel Aoun told The Daily Star that if no "serious solution is found for the problem of Palestinian weapons, the security situation in the country is going to worsen. "We have been asking the government since the beginning to draw up a clear security plan and implement it," he said. "The current situation is not acceptable, and something should be done about it," Aoun added. |