Beirut (AsiaNews/Agencies) The arrest of a Syrian thought to be involved in the assassination of Gibran Tueni was front page news in Beirut papers today, whilst Israeli planes flew over Lebanon to strike at a base of pro-Syrian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) a few kilometres south of Beirut. The latest raid comes 18 months after the previous one. Israel has accused the PFLP of firing seven Katyusha rockets against northern Israel hitting the town of Qiryat Shemona.
"Israel has the right to defend its citizens. The Lebanese government is responsible since it has not dismantled the terrorist organisations," said an Israeli military spokesperson
Apparently, only two people were wounded in the attack.
A PFLP spokesperson stated that Israel is using the attack as leverage to get Palestinian armed militias in Lebanon disarmed. United Nations Resolution 1559 calls for such disarmament.
The arrest of Abdel-Qader Abdel-Qader, a Syrian national, was splashed across Lebanese papers front pages for possible involvement in the attack that killed Gibran Tueni, a Member of Parliament and editor of An-Nahar, Beirut's Arabic-language mass circulation daily newspaper.
"It is the first time that Lebanon's justice system arrests a Syrian suspect," writes the influential L'Orient Le jour newspaper.
Abdel-Qader, a 30-year-old scrap dealer, was arrested after Judge Rachid Mezher issued a warrant for his arrest. On the morning of Tueni' assassination, he was in Mkalles where the attack occurred. Suspicions fell on him because of phone calls he made before and after the explosion.
Two other Syrians, who were detained with Abdel-Qader, were interrogated.