Senior Lebanese security officials have confirmed that there has been a noticeable increase in jihadist elements associated with al-Qaeda within Lebanon. This increase is naturally linked to armed elements in Syria and the stated and covert positions taken by some Lebanese political forces towards the conflict in Damascus. However, the same security apparatus has revealed in an exclusive interview that their investigations have determined that the most recent statement made by Jabhat al-Nusra was authored in north Lebanon. The email address responsible for posting the statement on the internet was traced to Tripoli, the capital of the North Governorate and close to the Syrian border.
Jabhat al-Nusra is the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Washington recently classified it as a terrorist organization, triggering negative reactions among armed forces of the Syrian opposition. It is noteworthy that this discovery by the Lebanese security apparatus is the first indication of the possibility that the organization’s leadership is moving into northern Lebanon, after having had a lingering presence in the land of the cedars for many years.
The transformation of a few specific areas in north Lebanon into strongholds and secret hideouts for Islamic jihadists is nothing new. In 1993, with the conflict raging in Bosnia, an explosive device detonated at the World Council of Churches, which was being held at a Greek Orthodox monastery (the sect to which the majority of Serbian Christians subscribe) in the area of Balamand near Tripoli in northern Lebanon. A number of those involved in the blast were arrested, and it was said that they confessed to being Islamic jihadists who carried out the bombing to exact vengeance for the massacre of Bosnian Muslims. That day the people of Lebanon learned for the first time of the existence of al-Qaeda jihadists in their country.
From that point on, one thing led to another. On the last day of 1999, an armed jihadist group attacked the central command of the Lebanese army in the northern region of al-Danniyah and also in eastern Tripoli. These attacks led to clashes with the Lebanese army which lasted for days. Once the smoke cleared, more than two dozen of those involved had been killed and dozens more arrested.
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