Violence in Lebanon can reach Israel. Sign showing the distance between Jerusalem and Lebanese capital city. Illustrative. By Joshua Spurlock
While an Al-Qaeda-inspired group, ISIL, is threatening to take over the country of Iraq, they aren’t the only such group waging war in the Middle East. And the ones in Lebanon are saying the fight is much bigger than just their battle.
The Daily Star reported that the Abdullah Azzam Brigades warned more attacks in Lebanon are on the way, following two suicide bombings in the country. The Syrian civil war is the catalyst behind this violence, as Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group helps the regime against rebels and their allies, which include groups like the Brigades. But the overall picture is larger and scarier than that.
The Daily Star quoted Tweets from the Abdullah Azzam Brigades’ spiritual guide, Sheikh Sirajeddine Zuraiqat, which said that the war was a religious one. The Brigades are part of the Sunni sect of Islam, while Hezbollah are part of the Shiite sect.
“The battle with Hezbollah is no longer only against us, but with the Sunnis in Syria and Lebanon,” Zuraiqat said, noting further that “all Sunnis are beginning to defend themselves.”
While it helps the West and Israel that Sunni terrorists are fighting Shiite terrorists, it nonetheless harkens to the fight in Syria and Iraq, where brutal Sunni Al-Qaeda spin-offs are trying to take over the region. Those groups, which have no love towards Israel or the West, will doubtless turn to them after their Shiite conquest is complete.
More tragically, in Lebanon innocents have been killed and wounded by the intra-terrorist fight. The Daily Star reported that at one police officer and one security officer were killed in the last two suicide bombings. Dozens of other people have been wounded.
While it’s unclear just how connected ISIL in Iraq is to the other Sunni terrorists, the reality is that the group’s share a similar vision: a bloodbath en route to victory in a religious war.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, June 25, 2014)