'Heading towards destruction' (archives)
Photo: AP
Hezbollah: Egypt arming rival Lebanese militias
Sources close to Shiite group say Egypt, Jordan training Sunni militias as part of 'subversive initiative against Lebanon for Israel's benefit'
Sources close to Hezbollah on Friday accused Egypt and Jordan of arming and training Sunni militias to fight the Lebanon-based Shiite organization.
"Egypt is leading a subversive initiative against Lebanon for Israel's benefit," said Nasr Kandil, a former Lebanese parliament member with ties to Hezbollah.
Slain Lebanese PM
Associated Press
'You know our position on the tribunal, so we cannot agree to finance it,' Shiite group's spokesman says
He claimed that Egypt is training hundreds of young people in military camps it set up under the guise of mobile hospitals, while Jordan "is also training 700 militia members."
Hezbollah opponents in Lebanon have accused the organization of planning an overthrow of the regime.
Senior Arab Democratic Party member Rifat Ali Eid said, "We are heading towards destruction as a result of outside intervention aimed at increasing communal tensions (between Shiites and Sunnis) that may ignite the entire Lebanese arena."
Eid accused Egypt and Jordan of inciting against the Shiites and spurring anti-Hezbollah elements. He said more Salafi movement members reside in northern Lebanon than in any other region in the Middle East.
"We have information indicating that some of the movement's members are training in north Lebanon before departing for Cyprus and Jordan to carry out terror attacks in Europe as well," Eid said.
The Salafi movement is linked to al-Qaeda.
On August 24, a gun battle broke out in west Beirut between supporters of the Shiite Hezbollah and those of the Sunni faction Al-Ahbash -- two loosely allied Syrian-backed parties -- in the mainly Muslim neighborhood of Burj Abi Haidar.
The four-hour street clash began as a row over a parking space but swiftly escalated into a full-fledged battle with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades that killed three, including Hezbollah official Mohammed Fawaz.
The clash again put widespread armament in Beirut in the limelight and raised fears of a repeat of May 2008, when gunmen supporting a Hezbollah-led alliance clashed with Druze and Sunni supporters of a rival alliance, killing 100 people in a week-long battle.
AFP contributed to the report
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