|
Trending Topics
|
Lebanon's Government Arrests Militants, Asserting Its Authority
(Wall Street Journal) Omar Abdel-Baqui - Lebanese authorities said they arrested several people who launched rockets toward Israel last month, showing that the state is becoming bolder about taking on militant groups that have destabilized the country. The government's power has been growing in the wake of Israeli operations that wiped out Hizbullah's top leadership and devastated its ranks and arsenal. "The Lebanese military has historically tried to avoid head-on confrontations with Hizbullah," said Randa Slim, a fellow at the Johns Hopkins University-based Foreign Policy Institute. "Its disarmament of Hizbullah in the south is being done in coordination - or at least without the rejection of - Hizbullah." "Hizbullah feels it is under siege from every direction. They have mostly lost their smuggling channels through the Syrian border and the airport, Israel continues to attack them by air, and now even the Lebanese government, which long turned a blind eye, is part of the siege."