A "brave little force"
defeats an al Qaeda Stronghold
Monday, 03
September 2007. Mideast Newswire
Today, the Lebanese Army completed
its victory over the Fatah al Islam forces in the Nahr
al Bared stronghold in Northern Lebanon. The "little
brave force," backed by the country's civil society and
by the Cedars Revolution accomplished in one small area
what major armies are hoping to achieve globally: defeat
al Qaeda. On this Sunday September 2, the Lebanese
soldiers and officers finally took the last bunker of
the al Qaeda linked Jihadi terror group. Immediately
after, the civilian populations in Northern Lebanon,
from Sunni Tripoli and Dennieh, Maronite Zghortan and
Besharre, Orthodox Kura, and multiethnic Akkar,
expressed their joy to see the Jihadist removed. The
local victory of the Lebanese Army -despite the threat
of multiple identical groups in the country preparing
for clashes- shows that, what I called a "brave little
force," can confront and defeat Terrorists when the
Government is focused on such a policy. The Lebanese
Army is ill equipped, is emerging from 15 years of
Syrian occupation and is under the pressure of
pro-Jihadist Parties and politicians including Hezbollah
and its allies. But nevertheless, the multiethnic
military force produced a victory on the ground. It
faced off with well trained Jihadists who used suicide
bombers, snipers, slaughter of innocents, and all the
panoply of weapons they have. But, as the pictures have
shown over the past few months, the Lebanese military
were fighting on their soil, and had their population
supporting them. Bottom line: they won this one battle,
by themselves with their own arms, tanks, helicopters
and more than a hundred casualties. This was their
Fallujah which they freed alone.
But as important is the support
received by the military from the various Lebanese
communities. This second test since the Cedars
Revolution shows that a cross sectarian solidarity exist
against the barbary of the Jihadi terrorists. Among the
army's casualties, Sunnis, Christians, Druse and Shia.
Tripoli, mostly Sunni with Christian and Alawi
communities stood firmly by the Lebanese Army. In the
rest of the area, civilians from all religions also
supported their soldiers. This attitude sent chilling
messages to Hezbollah and his Syro-Iranian allies: When
you are confronting an army backed by its people, you
have little chance of intimidating it. Also a message to
many in the international media who -sympathetic to Iran
and Syria- projected the masses to turn against the
Army. Dead wrong: Not only the Lebanese civilians stood
by their armed forces and Government, but a majority of
Palestinians in the camps sided with Mahmoud Abbas
against the Jihadists of Fatah al Islam. This is an
experiment that deserves the attention of the Free
World, as Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Palestine are
witnessing the Terror war against surging democracies.
The soldiers close to their societies can win in the War
on Terror.
**Dr Walid Phares is the Director,
Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the
Defense of Democracies |