Serious 'Takfiri' Danger along Lebanon’s Border: Hezbollah Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Deputy head of Hezbollah’s executive council Sheikh Nabil Qaouk said in comments published Sunday that the threat of extremists on the outskirts of Lebanon’s northeastern border towns was real and should not be ignored.
“The Takfiri danger of Daesh and the Nusra Front on the outskirts of Arsal and Ras Baalbek is serious, real, comprehensive and continuous. This danger must not be dealt with through complacency or disregard, as some are doing in Lebanon who insist on ignoring these takfiri gangs,” Qaouk said during a Hezbollah memorial celebration in a south Lebanon village Saturday.
Qaouk added that those officials were a burden on the country’s interests, defending his party’s preemptive role in the Syrian war and acknowledging the dangers of such militant groups, the Daily Star reported.
Secretary General of the Hezbollah resistance movement, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, explicitly announced in 2013 that his party was actively taking part in the Syrian war.
“Through the cooperation between the Lebanese army and Hezbollah, Lebanon has been able to achieve what many large international coalitions against terrorism in Iraq and Syria haven’t,” Qaouk stated, adding that this cooperation was of great strategic importance that helps protect Lebanon from extremist and Israeli threats.
The Lebanese army and Hezbollah regularly pound Daesh and Nusra Front hideouts along the rugged outskirts surrounding Arsal, Ras Baalbek and Al-Qaa to the east, along the Syrian frontier, to keep them at bay.
Hezbollah Saturday said that it had killed Abu Khatab, a Daesh commander who was in charge of Al-Qaa’s outskirts in the area of Al-Zuwaitini.
Al-Qaa was targeted by eight suicide bombings on June 27 that killed five people and wounded over 30. No one has yet claimed responsibility for those attacks.
