Jreissati from Rabieh: What is needed now is to address terrorism

Former Minister Salim Jreissati said on Tuesday that “what is needed now is to address terrorism.”

“No panic is needed now, we only need to address terrorism amid the ongoing situation,” he noted.

Jreissati’s comments were made following the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting at Rabieh whereby he called on the government to shoulder its responsibilities in terms of the Syrian exodus in order to “preserve Lebanon’s security and the safety of the refugees.”

Lebanese troops detained 103 Syrians for illegal entry into the country, in a security sweep on Tuesday, a day after a series of deadly bombings struck a village near the border with Syria, the military said.

The unprecedented attacks,  nine explosions in all, eight of them suicide bombings,  triggered fear and panic among residents of Qaa village and a deepening sense of foreboding in Lebanon, which has grappled for over five years with spillovers from neighboring Syria's civil war.

Monday's explosions, four in early morning and five at night, killed five people and wounded nearly 30 in the mainly Christian Qaa village. Later in the day, two bombers blew themselves outside the village church as people gathered for funerals of those killed earlier Monday.