Miqati: Army Will Respond Without Hesitation to Sources of Tripoli Fire
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati promised on Thursday that the Lebanese army will not hesitate to open fire on gunmen involved in the fighting in the northern city of Tripoli.
In remarks to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, Miqati said: “The military will respond without hesitation to the sources of fire from any side they came because the city's residents have the right to live in peace.”
“There is no turning back,” he stressed.
He reiterated that the army command does not need any political cover for its actions. “The orders have been given to all its units deployed in Tripoli to preserve security fairly and in a balanced manner.”
Miqati told the newspaper that the command briefed him on the plan it has implemented in the city after the fighting which has pitted Alawite residents of the neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen against Sunnis from Bab al-Tabbaneh began going out of control.
The violence is tied to the conflict in Syria, where a Sunni-led uprising is fighting to overthrow the regime of President Bashar Assad, an Alawite.
The army's units are highly equipped, Miqati said.
He hoped that all bickering parties would cooperate with the military institution to prevent the eruption of a new round of fighting.
The army command vowed in a communique on Wednesday to take “decisive measures irrespective of political meddling” to end the gunbattles.
It said that the army had at first addressed the fighting with wisdom to allow the city's officials to deal with the situation. But the conditions set by them in addition to the attacks carried out by the gunmen on the army have increased the number of casualties.
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