Fatah: Co-op With Hezbollah Necessary In Anti-terror War

Beirut, Aug 21, IRNA -- A Palestinian Fatah Movement official in Lebanon, Hassan Zeidan, referring to a terrorist act in al-Rowais in south of Beirut, said that increased cooperation with Hezbollah is the best way in campaign against terrorism. The Palestinian Fatah Movement official in Lebanon, Abu Ayhab Hassan Zaidan made the comment at a press conference in Beirut on Tuesday. He added, The most appropriate way to respond to such inhumane (terrorist) operations is coalition with Hezbollah aimed at defeating the plots hatched by the enemies of Lebanon and Hezbollah. Zaidan added, Just as the time that the Palestinian groups established a close cooperation with the Lebanese Hezbollah and thanks to which they managed to defeat the racist Zionist regime in Lebanon in the year 2006, today, too, they will be able to defeat the entire ill-wishers of Lebanon in cooperation with Hezbollah.” The Palestinian official invited the Lebanese officials to remain on alert in confrontation with the agents who sponsor sedition and the disturbers of Lebanon’s stability and security. The Head of the Lebanese Arabic Towheed (Monotheism) Party, We’aam Wahhab, too, at the same press conference called on the entire heads of Palestinian groups and officials in the aftermath of the terrorist operation in al-Rowais, near Beirut’s Zahiyah district, to remain on full alert and about the sensitive conditions with which Lebanon is entangled with today. He also asked the Lebanese judiciary force to survey the file of the terrorist act urgently and to appoint a special judge to survey the horrendous criminal act on al-Rowais. Elsewhere in his address, Wahhab referred to the prevailing status of poverty, unemployment, lack of social services, and unruly living conditions at the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, asking for urgent action on the part of the Lebanese government to improve the living conditions of the Palestinians in Lebanon. At least 14 people were killed and 212 others injured in a car bombing that rocked a Hezbollah residential area in Beiruts southern suburbs on Thursday, state-run National News Agency reported. The blast went off on the public road between Bir al-Abed and al-Rowais, according to several television channels. There were at least six people killed and a large number of others wounded, a military source told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity. Lebanese Red Cross director Georges Kittani said more than 100 people were wounded. But NNA said 10 bodies were transported to the Sahel Hospital and four others to the Great Prophet Hospital, while 100 wounded people were rushed to the Great Prophet Hospital, 50 to Bahman Hospital and 20 others to al-Bourj Hospital. According to the interior ministry, the blast was caused by a car bomb, MTV reported. The human remains found 10 meters from the blast location might be those of a suicide bomber, al-Manar television said. Live TV footage showed burning cars and pillars of black smoke bellowing from the blast scene. “Gunfire was heard in the vicinity of the blast scene,” al-Jadeed television reported. “The blast went off near Mahfouz Stores in al-Rowais,” OTV reported, as MTV said the explosion took place under a bridge facing the Harkous Chicken Restaurant. Al-Mayadeen television said a security cordon was imposed around the location. According to MTV, the bomb weighed between 60 and 80 kilograms of explosives. Media reports said a large number of families were still trapped inside the burning buildings in the area. Later on Thursday, a group calling itself the Brigades of Aisha Umm al-Moemeneen claimed the bombing in a YouTube video and threatened further attacks./end