Army Ready to Eliminate Mawlawi, Mansour Group as Fears Mount in Tripoli

The Lebanese army and security forces expressed readiness to launch a swift operation in the northern city of Tripoli to arrest the group of two notorious fugitives Shadi al-Mawlawi and Osama Mansour.

“If the endeavors of Muslim clerics failed to end this phenomenon, then the army and security forces will intervene,” security sources said in comments published in al-Akhbar newspaper on Wednesday.

The two fugitives reportedly took asylum in the Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood after the Lebanese judiciary charged them with belonging to an armed terrorist group in order to stage terrorist acts, and holing up at a Tripoli mosque with the aim of preparing bombs and explosive devices to target Lebanese army troops in the area.

They were also indicted in the case of the August 3 bomb explosion that killed Tripoli resident Issam al-Shaar in the al-Jinan area.

Bab al-Tabbaneh residents denied that barricades and sand bags were erected around a security square established by al-Mawlawi and Mansour.

On Tuesday, Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) said that the the barricades are spread on the main streets separating the rival Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighborhoods in the northern city and between Bab al-Tabbaneh and army posts in Tripoli.

The radio station said that surveillance cameras were also set to monitor the security square that includes al-Asmar square, Starco, Tartous street and the vegetable market.

However, security sources told al-Akhbar that the security cameras were placed three weeks ago in the area.

Sources told the newspaper, that there is popular sympathy with the Mawlawi and Mansour group but no one is ready to defend them against the army and security forces.

On September 12, Mansour, who leads an Islamist militia in Bab al-Tabbaneh, denied reports that his group had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State or al-Nusra Front.

The 27-year-old militant had been wanted on dozens of arrest warrants and was recently apprehended in the Bekaa before being eventually released.

Mansour's 20-member group had recently “occupied” the Omar bin Massoud Mosque in Bab al-Tabbaneh and he started “playing a bigger role” in the city with the beginning of the Arsal battle in the Bekaa in early August.

Mansour and his group have however denied “occupying” the mosque, noting that they are present there because they are residents of the neighborhood.

H.K.

M.T.