Lebanese Army Takes Over Security In Beirut’s Southern Suburbs
For the first time in decades, the Lebanese army has taken over security in Beirut’s southern suburbs — Hezbollah’s traditional stronghold — leading some to hope that this step can be applied throughout the country.
A few small units of the Lebanese army and Internal Security Forces (ISF) recently entered the Dahiyeh neighborhood, Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut. Over the course of the last several years, the Lebanese security establishment had maintained a merely symbolic presence in the area, since Hezbollah had established its own security zones. The latter provided unseen protection for areas in which the group’s various facilities and leaders — particularly those involving anti-Israeli operations — operated.
This deployment comes in response to the two bombings that struck Dahiyeh in the latter half of the summer: one in Bir al-Abed and the other in the neighborhood of Ruwais. On Sept. 24, local newspapers reported that Lebanese security sources had leaked new information concerning the perpetrators of the attack in Ruwais. According to those sources, the bombings were executed by Syrian and Lebanese Salafists connected to an extremist fundamentalist group in Syria. Hezbollah remains fearful that similar bombings will be directed against its stronghold in Dahiyeh, since the party responsible for the previous bombing is seeking to pressure Hezbollah into withdrawing its military units from Syria.
