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Al-Qaeda Declares War on Hezbollah |
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Written by Fatema Hussain
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Friday, 09 May 2008 |
Al-Qaeda has reportedly called on its operatives to go to Lebanon and defend
what it called the Sunni community of the country.
The report came while some Arab media outlets described the current clashes in
Lebanon as a fight between Sunni and Shia communities.
Leading Sunni clerics in Lebanon however rejected that what Lebanon was
witnessing was a sectarian war between Sunnis and Shias. In a televised
statement to media networks, Sheikh Mahir Hammoud, Imam of the Al-Quds Mosque in Sayda, called on Fouad Siniora to retreat back from the
resolutions adopted by the government calling for the closure of the telecommunications network of Hezbollah, terming the resolutions of the government as "resolutions
of war".
"There will not be Sunni-Shia discord [in Lebanon]," he added. Hammoud also advised fellow Sunni cleric, Muhammad Rashid Qabbani, not to act as "an instrument in the hands of the Americans."
Sunni religious leader and president of the Islamic Action Front in Lebanon,
Fathi Yakin, called on the 14th March coalition to stop playing a "game of
death" in subservience to the interests of the United Stated and Israel.
Meanwhile, Sunni clerics with links to Saad Hariri's pro-government bloc have
described the ongoing clashes as a sectarian strife.
Sheikh Ali al-Jozo, Mufti of the Jebel region, who is well known for his harsh
stance against Hezbollah told Al-Arabiya TV network that the clashes are a
battle between Lebanon's Shia and Sunni communities and called on Arab leaders
to prevent "Iran's influence in the country."
The TV network reported that al-Qaeda has urged its operatives to defend the Sunni community of Lebanon on its websites.
In the same vein, former Lebanese president Amine Gemayel added his voice to the debate by escalating tensions and
increasing the fear of attacks by Al Qaeda operatives situated in
Lebanon. Late on Friday, the former President and currrent head of the Kataeb
Party said: "Al-Qaeda has always threatened Lebanon. I hope the Hezbollah
leaders are aware of the consequences for the current unrest in the country."
In his piece titled "The Redirection" in the New Yorker magazine in March of last year, investigative journalist
Seymour Hersh uncovered the movement of US funds to Lebanese groups with ties to
Al-Qaeda in a bid by the administration in Washington to undermine Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"[I]n Lebanon, the Administration has cooperated with Saudi Arabia’s government,
which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah,
the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. ... [A] by-product of these
activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a
militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al
Qaeda", Hersh found.
Source: AIM News
Comments posted are the sole opinion of the author and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of AIM. |
