Lebanonwire.com | Lebanon tightens security as Hariri death probe nears end

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Octobwe 1, 2005

Lebanon tightens security as Hariri death probe nears end

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon has tightened border security and increased surveillance of Palestinian militants, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora was quoted as saying Saturday, as a probe into the murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri neared its end.

"Some of around 80 illegal crossing points in the north and in the Bekaa" valley along the Syrian border used to smuggle contraband and militants "have been closed", Siniora told the Al-Mustaqbal daily, owned by the Hariri family.

The Lebanese army has also "reinforced surveillance of training camps in the Bekaa and southern Lebanon," he said, referring to militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

Several militant groups exist among the some 400,000 Palestinians living in refugee camps in Lebanon, but the pro-Syrian PFLP-GC is the only major Palestinian movement to maintain military positions outside the camps.

All militia groups in Lebanon are required to put down their weapons in compliance with last year's UN Resolution 1559 which calls on Lebanon to extend sovereignty over all its territory.

The Security Council resolution, passed in September 2004, led to Syria's withdrawal after a 29-year military presence amid popular outcry over Damascus's alleged involvement in Hariri's killing in February.

Siniora said that Detlev Mehlis, the German magistrate heading the probe into Hariri's assassination in a Beirut bombing, would leave the capital on Monday to write his report and return on October 11.

Lebanese authorities earlier this month arrested four former Lebanese security chiefs in connection with the killing following recommendations from the UN inquiry.

Mehlis is due to deliver his report to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on October 21.

Siniora also said enquiries had revealed a "jamming operation" to incapacitate the electronic defences of Hariri's convoy just before he and 20 others were killed in the massive blast.

A number of mobile telephone company employees have been questioned in connection with the bombing amid allegations phone technicians were involved.

Meanwhile, a security source said explosives had been discovered in front of a magistrate's car north of Beirut.

The explosives were found in front of Nazem Khoury's car in Sahel al-Alma after reportedly being dropped by two men who then ran away.

Khoury is leading an enquiry into the fraudulent collapse of the Al-Madina bank two years ago amid allegations of money laundering.

Lebanon has been rocked by a string of bombings, sometimes fatal, since Hariri's killing, with television anchorwoman May Chidiac maimed in the latest such attack on September 25.