The Lebanese army stepped up pressure against a pro-Syrian group in Lebanon Wednesday, surrounding a mountain base and deploying hundreds of troops around another base following Tuesday's killing of a Lebanese contractor.
According to the AP, scores of soldiers took up positions around a base of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command in Sultan Yacoub, a village some 3 miles from the Syrian border, witnesses said. Soldiers using loud speakers demanded the Palestinians leave the base. Army checkpoints were set up, stopping and searching all cars entering the area, witnesses said.
The base is reportedly equipped with several tunnels dug into the mountain and used by the dozens of Palestinian fighters based there. It should be mentioned that the recent UN report has claimed that Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command was invlolved in the February 14's killing of former Lebanon's premier, Rafic al Hariri.
The Lebanese government has declared Palestinian groups must shut down their military posts they hold outside of the refugee camps across the country.
