Lebanese Army Squeezing Al Qaeda for Iranian Proxies
By Andrew Cochran
On January 13, based on intel from a reliable Western government source, I posted that a turf war was developing between Islamic terrorist groups in and around Gaza and southern Lebanon. That came after the December 27 rocket attack into Israel by Al Qaeda elements, which called into question Hezbollah's dominion over southern Lebanon. This week, the Lebanese army announced that it had arrested the suspects in the attack, and Olivier Guitta posted on the conflict between a growing Al Qaeda presence in Lebanon and the entrenched Hezbollah power. The Western intel source told me yesterday that the Lebanese army is assisting its Hezbollah allies by working to squeeze Al Qaeda elements out of southern Lebanon. The suspects arrested this week were Lebanese and Palestinian, testifying to Al Qaeda's recruiting success in the region. In early February, Emily Hunt of the respected Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote, "Ultimately, future interaction between the two groups will depend partially on the Iranian and Syrian stances on al-Qaeda operations in the Lebanese context." The intel source told me that Iran is satisfied with funding Hezbollah (roughly $100 million/year), Hamas (roughly $250 million), and PIJ in Lebanon and Palestine, and would not assist elements of Al Zarqawi's anti-Shiite Al Qaeda.
The intel source also described the final order on March 9 by the U.S. Treasury Department for U.S. financial institutions to cease all activity with the Commercial Bank of Syria as part of a combined American-French effort to punish Syria for its continuing interference in Lebanon and the Palestinian territory.
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