BEIRUT: A recent unprecedented three-day security clampdown by Hezbollah in Beirut’s southern suburbs uncovered at least two car bombs, according to local residents and sources close to the party.
Hezbollah has made no formal announcement of the alleged discovery of the car bombs, apparently choosing to play down the incident. But the unusually tight and visible security measures in Beirut’s southern suburbs over the weekend reflect a general nervousness in the country that the continued stalemate in the cabinet formation and tensions generated by the unrest in Syria will lead to instability.
Hezbollah, as a matter of course, maintains strict security procedures in the southern suburbs, home to much of the party’s leadership. Security personnel conduct routine patrols along the streets of the district in the early hours of the morning, often using sniffer dogs to check for potential explosive devices or car bombs.
But local residents say that at the end of last week, Hezbollah noticeably increased its security efforts by deploying armed personnel accompanied by muzzled sniffer dogs in daylight hours at access points leading into the southern suburbs. Hezbollah cadres very rarely display weapons in public, underlining to local residents the apparent seriousness of the security clampdown.
“The security was scary,” said one resident, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
“It’s the first time we have seen this kind of force on the streets here.”
Black SUVs belonging to Hezbollah’s rapid reaction unit were also parked at entrances to the suburbs. Local sources said that two car bombs were discovered.
The security alert came a week after six Italian peacekeepers and two civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded beside a UNIFIL convoy just north of Sidon. The investigation into the May 27 bomb attack, the first against UNIFIL in more than three years, is ongoing. Security sources say that Lebanese investigators are confident that they will determine the identity of the culprits. Investigators are examining whether there is a connection between the UNIFIL bomb ambush and a planned attempt to launch at least one rocket into Israel a few days earlier. That attack was foiled when troops arrested a courier carrying the rocket near Hasbaya. One other suspect, the mastermind of the planned rocket launch, has gone missing. The unidentified individual is said to be a resident of the Iqlim al-Kharroub region north of Sidon, the same area where the UNIFIL bombing occurred.
According to diplomatic sources, at the tripartite session in Naqoura on May 11, a monthly meeting that groups together the UNIFIL commander and senior Lebanese and Israeli army officers, the Israeli representative warned that extremists in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon were planning attacks against UNIFIL, the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah. The Israelis occasionally pass on general security threats they have picked up to UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army, while usually keeping the details to themselves so as not to betray the source of the information. But diplomats were surprised that the Israelis chose to include Hezbollah in the warning. Whether Hezbollah’s recent security measures stemmed from the Israeli warning and the UNIFIL attack or were prompted by the party’s own intelligence sources is unclear.
However, it should come as no surprise that Hezbollah is exerting more energy than usual into securing its environs given the worsening violence in Syria and the flaring sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Alawites.
Hezbollah has always championed intra-Muslim unity, believing that the schism between Sunnis and Shiites distracts from the greater goal of confronting Israel. But the party’s leadership will have been dismayed by recent reports of some Syrian opposition supporters chanting anti-Iranian and anti- Hezbollah slogans and burning pictures of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the party’s secretary-general, during protests.
The United States has accused Iran of providing material support, including equipment to trace and monitor phone calls and internet traffic, to help the Syrian authorities suppress the uprising. Rumors swirl in Syrian opposition circles of Hezbollah fighters assisting Syrian security forces on the ground. No hard evidence has emerged of direct Hezbollah support and most observers are skeptical that the Syrian regime requires the assistance of Hezbollah personnel. Nonetheless, the rumors have helped inflame anti-Hezbollah sentiment among Sunni opposition supporters in Syria.
In the same context, the Al-Qaeda-inspired Abdullah al-Azzam Brigades this week accused Hezbollah, which it described as Syria’s “Shiite agent in Lebanon,” of perpetrating the bomb attack against UNIFIL.
Given the hardening sectarian sentiment in Syria and the possibility of a backlash in Lebanon, Hezbollah is checking on all new arrivals in Beirut’s southern suburbs, particularly Syrians moving into the district to live and work. According to local residents, Hezbollah’s security personnel interview newly arrived Syrians to ascertain their background and reasons for moving into the area.