Factions urged to aid inquiry into embassy protester death in Lebanon

Lebanese president Michel Suleiman yesterday urged the Shia Hizbullah movement and Iran to aid the investigation into the death of an anti-Hizbullah protester during a demonstration outside the Iranian embassy on Sunday.

It is alleged Hashem Salman (28) was shot when Hizbullah supporters set upon the demonstrators and fired shots to disperse them. The protesters were from the small Shia Lebanese Option party, headed by Ahmad Asaad and linked to the mainstream Sunni Future Movement, the Syrian rebels' main supporter in Lebanon.

Fresh tensions
Although Lebanese media played up the incident, which stirred fresh tensions in an already tense country, a Shia commentator said he did not expect the killing would ignite a conflagration as both victim and suspected shooters were Shias.

“If he had been a Sunni, that would have been a different story”, since inter-communal politics would have come into play.

He was greatly relieved that since the fall of the rebel-held Syrian border down of Qusayr to Syrian army and Hizbullah forces last week, the Lebanese army had “finally” begun to dismantle barricades and checkpoints in the northern port city of Tripoli. In a spillover from the Syrian conflict, pro-rebel Sunnis have been battling pro-regime heterodox Shia Alawites in Tripoli over the past two years. Last month alone, 33 people were killed there.

“The army needed political cover,” the source stated. “But the government was very weak and acted only when Qusayr provided the cover.”

The army declared it would tackle gunmen and raid the city’s warring districts after politicians failed to bring an end to clashes and sniping.

The source, close to Hizbullah, said the movement may deploy its fighters in the Syrian army campaign to retake Aleppo but they may not be as "high-profile" as in Qusayr, Hizbullah's first experience of offensive rather than defensive action. He said 93 had been killed over the past two months.

Anticipating an Aleppo offensive, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has ruled against the forced union of the Syrian-based Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq, proclaimed two months ago by its head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in spite of opposition from the Jabhat's commander Abu Mohamed al-Golani.

Following the merger, Mr Baghdadi moved his base of operations to northern Syria and up to 70 per cent of the Jabhat's fighters joined the Islamic State, creating tension and competition. Prior to this takeover, the Jabhat had fielded the most effective rebel units fighting the Syrian army.

'Beloved brothers'
Mr Zawahiri castigated him for declaring a merger without consulting al-Qaeda central and said Syria was the "spatial state" for the Jabhat while the Iraq-based group should confine its operations to that country. He said, "The proponents of jihad were all dismayed by the dispute that occurred . . . between our beloved brothers." He called on them to co-operate and share money, weapons and fighters. This dispute has hurt the morale of fighters from all factions energised by the Jabhat.