Posted on 07/22/2002 12:00:03 PM PDT by knighthawk
An Islamist group warned the Lebanese army on Monday it would pay dearly for the arrest of a suspected Muslim militant.
In a statement, quoted by Reuters, the group, Jamaat an-Nour, also stated it was responsible for planting a bomb at a mosque frequented by a cleric who helped in the arrest. The army defused a bomb on Saturday at a mosque in Sidon, where Muslim clerics last week handed over Badie Hamadeh, a Lebanese man charged with killing three security officers before taking refuge in a Palestinian refugee camp.
In its statement, Jamaat an-Nour alluded to the bomb incident as punishment for a cleric who helped in the arrest of Hamadeh, and warned of retribution against the Lebanese army. "Jamaat an-Nour considers turning brother Badie Hamadeh over...to be treason, and on Saturday night sent its first warning to (Sheikh) Maher Hammoud," it said.
"We warn the Lebanese army and all those implicated in this incident (Hamadeh's arrest) that they will pay dearly for their treachery, deception and baseness."
Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star correspondent
The army thwarted a bomb attack over the weekend against a key mediator in the capture and hand over of an Islamic militant wanted for the murder of three intelligence agents. Army bomb disposal experts Saturday defused the device planted in the Quds mosque in Sidon.
The mosque’s imam, Sheikh Maher Hammoud, was one of the religious leaders who organized the hand over of Badih Hamadeh early Tuesday in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp where he had been holed up since the murder of the three soldiers the previous week.
Police evacuated the imam and worshippers after Hammoud discovered the device inside the mosque at 4.30pm and alerted the army. The makeshift bomb was hidden inside a cardboard box in the prayer hall.
Army and Internal Security Forces personnel cordoned off the area and blocked roads leading to the mosque. The army’s bomb expert arrived at 6.45pm, 15 minutes before the bomb was timed to explode.
According to the expert who dismantled the bomb, the device was made of three grenades linked to a detonator. Hammoud refused to describe the situation as an “assassination attempt,” because the bomb was due to explode at 7pm, one hour before evening prayers, when the mosque is usually empty.
“Those who placed the bomb did not intend to harm anyone, but want to send a message or express their displeasure with certain matters,” he said Sunday at his office in Sidon.
“We say to those who sent the message that it was received … and that we could have understood their displeasure without a bomb,” Hammoud said.
Hammoud said that the bomb was “certainly” linked to his mediation in the hand over of Hamadeh, also known as Abu Obeida, especially since he (Hammoud) has had very limited political activities.
Hammoud mediated with the Esbat al-Ansar’s officials who were sheltering Hamadeh to obtain his hand over.
He called for cooperation to save the Ain al-Hilweh camp and its surroundings, adding that authorities should be “firm” in controlling security.
Hammoud said he “did not expect any more messages.” “Those who send (these type of) messages are few, especially when you can use the phone or papers, but it seems that our brothers have a habit of making the message booby-trapped,” he said.
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