Archive » lebanon

The Jerusalem Post reports this morning:
Syria has mobilized some 3,000 troops and heavy equipment near its border with eastern Lebanon, Beirut’s As-Safir newspaper reported over the weekend.
The troop movement is being carried out under the banner of a bid to stop illegal smuggling and cross-border criminal movement, but Middle East analysts are viewing it as [...]

Honor the 241.

Koran as stage prop!

Jim Hoft’s got a round-up. Stand by for more…
Wire report:
A bomb rocked a Christian suburb east of the Lebanese capital Wednesday, killing an anti-Syrian lawmaker and six other people, security officials said.
Antoine Ghanem is the eighth prominent anti-Syrian figure assassinated since 2005.
Ghanem, 64, a member of the right-wing Christian Phalange Party, was targeted by the [...]

Reuters reporting:
The U.N. Security Council voted on Wednesday to establish a special court to prosecute the murder two years ago of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Ten council members voted for the Western-sponsored resolution and five — Russia, China, Qatar, Indonesia and South Africa — abstained, with no votes against. The resolution will go into [...]

***scroll for updates…US denounces assassination….Saad Hariri, Rafik’s son and leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority: “We believe the hand of Syria is all over the place”…***
This is the big news of the day. Or rather, in a non-O.J., non-Hollyweird-drenched, non-trivialized world, it would be the big news of the day.
The Lebanese Daily Star reports another [...]

***scroll for updates***
Escalation:
Israeli aircraft attacked Beirut airport and killed 22 civilians in strikes on south Lebanon on Thursday, dramatically widening its reprisals after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight.
Hizbollah retaliated for “Israeli massacres” by firing 60 rockets at Nahariya. The Israeli army said Katyusha rockets had hit the northern Israeli city and that [...]

Source: Yahoo!/AFP
Today marks the first anniversary of the assassination of Rafik Hariri and the birth of Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution.
Half a million Lebanese citizens rallied in honor of Hariri’s memory today (via Reuters):
The turnout was reminiscent of huge protests after last year’s February 14 killing of Hariri and 22 others.
Those demonstrations, coupled with international pressure, [...]