The following are summaries of today's major stories published in the
Arabic press. LBCI does not edit press digest articles for content, giving
English-language readers insight into the various views expressed in newspapers
across the Arab world.
Sources
close to Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun told
As-Safir Daily on
Monday that his security personnel had received prior warnings of a possible assassination attempt. Accordingly, three 'fake' convoys were scheduled to
leave Jezzine, along with the convoy Aoun was in. One of the ‘fake’ convoys passed through
Sidon were the assassination attempt took place, while the convoy boarding Aoun
was making its way to Beirut through the village of Joun. For more on this story, click
here.
Interior
Minister Marwan Charbel told
Al-Joumhouria Daily on Monday that confirmation of reports that emerged on Aoun’s assassination attempt are evident in "a bullet which was found in a car belonging to one of Aoun’s fake convoys passing through Sidon."
Charbel
told the Daily that investigations are ongoing on many levels, including at the
scene of the accident. “We went to Sidon where the convoy was shot at, and experts
inspected the scene of the accident as well as the shooter’s possible location;
however, we did not find anything, not even a single bullet shells; this
does not mean that the attack did not take place; the shooter may have taken
the shells with him.”
On the
source of the bullet that hit the car, Charbel said that, according to criminal
evidence, the shape of the gap
caused by the bullet shows that it was fired from a far distance at an
altitude similar to that of the car.
“The person
who was sitting on the passenger seat survived by miracle since the bullet
pierced the door; had it been shot from a higher altitude, it would have hit him”, he
added.
Charbel
stressed the importance of waiting for investigations to be completed, adding that
dealing with this case by trusting unknown security sources is very dangerous. “The
ISF director general and I are the only reliable sources”, he said.
- Berri: The campaign against kidnapping and bank-robbing gangs
is ongoing
House Speaker Nabih Berri told
An-Nahar Daily on Monday that
the campaign against the gangs that are carrying out abductions and robbing
banks from Beirut’s Southern Suburbs to the Bekaa is ongoing, adding that the Lebanese army is
taking this campaign very seriously; “no one will be able to stop the army from carrying
on with this mission for it is unacceptable to leave villages and towns to
these gangs that are terrorizing people and hindering the country’s economy”.
“Following the army’s incident in Arsal, is anyone objecting
to the self-distancing policy [adopted by the Lebanese government towards
events in Syria]? Berri wondered, adding "ask MP Walid Jumblatt about this; every day, he stresses the
importance of such a policy, along with his ministers and MPs”.
Security sources told
Al-Akhbar Daily on Monday that the Free
Syrian Army is devising many plans to control strategic locations that would
allow it to have access to Lebanese regions that would provide it with logistic
support.
The sources pointed out that Free Syrian Army troops developed
a plan to control the site of the Syrian ‘observatory’ that monitors the
mountainous area of Arsal.
The “observatory” is a strategic location and if controlled by
the FSA, crossing from and into Lebanon from the eastern side would become
safer for the groups providing military and civil support to Syria.
In a related context, well-informed sources told the newspaper
that Free Syrian Army units are carrying out daily attacks against Syrian sites
located near the border with Lebanon, sneaking into Lebanon and then returning
to Syria.
They explained that Arsal’s mountainous area is the scene of “a
military struggle to control crossings.”
- Public Schools enrollment sees 10% increase
An-Nahar Daily reported on Monday that the number of students
enrolled in public schools increased by 10% compared to last year. This surge is
due to the number of Syrian students who fled violence in their country,
seeking refuge in Lebanon and due to the dire financial situation of limited-income
Lebanese families.