LEBANESE DEFMIN CONFIDENT ON NAHR AL-BARID FIGHT

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIRUT 000830

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NSC FOR ABRAMS/SINGH/MARCHESE/HARDING

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/08/2017
TAGS: PREL MOPS PTER MASS LE SY
SUBJECT: LEBANESE DEFMIN CONFIDENT ON NAHR AL-BARID FIGHT

Classified By: Jeffrey Feltman, Ambassador, per 1.4 (b) and (d).

SUMMARY
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1. (S) Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Elias Murr
told Ambassador and DCM on 6/8 that GOL forces are committed
to completing the operation at Nahar al-Barid against Fatah
al-Islam insurgents; he estimated the LAF needs three to five
more days. In recent fierce fighting, the LAF had killed 12
FAI suicide bombers. The LAF estimated it had killed 155 FAI
fighters and captured six as of Friday night; Lebanese Armed
Forces (LAF) casualties were 48 killed (plus an additional
seven on Saturday),260 wounded. Murr claimed that the GOL
has intercepted conversations that link FAI and the Syrian
regime. The Ambassador urged Murr to share that information
via intelligence channels and to give a releasable version to
the UN for the Monday Security Council briefing on UNSCR

1559. Murr categorically denied that the GOL would purchase
GOL sniper rifles, and he promised to give the USG access to
munitions and other material seized at Nahr al-Barid and in
raids elsewhere. Denying the press reports, Murr insisted
that the Grad missiles seized from Hizballah recently remain
in LAF custody. End summary.

FIERCE FIGHTING;
ANOTHER 3-5 DAYS NEEDED
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2. (C) Meeting the Ambassador and DCM on 6/8, Murr
described the situation in Nahr al-Barid as "Fallujah-like"
house-to-house fighting, with the LAF destroying buildings as
they go to take away sites FAI can use. Prime Minister Fouad
Siniora's hope that the FAI fighters would surrender was
proven unfounded by the fierceness of the fighting and by the
fact that on Friday alone, LAF snipers shot dead 12 FAI
terrorists equipped with explosive belts who intended suicide
operations. Murr claimed that the LAF destroyed 180
buildings in one sweep and were, as of Friday night, a mere
60 meters from the Fatah al-Islam Samad Center and 200 meters
from the Tawaniyya Center. Once these two FAI strongholds
are taken, Murr said, the military operation will be less
difficult and become more like a security operation. He at
first estimated that the LAF needed another three days,
amending it later to three to five days, for the major
operations to be over.


3. (C) In terms of casualties, Murr estimated that the LAF
has killed 155 FAI fighters since the operations began May

20. But, as FAI buries those bodies that fall on its side of
the frontlines and some buildings were leveled with FAI
fighters inside, Murr underscored that it is impossible to
know for sure. The LAF, as of Friday, had suffered 48 killed
and 260 wounded. Updating the Ambassador by phone on
Saturday night (6/9),Murr reported an additional seven LAF
fatalities. While the Saturday battle was extremely tough
and going very slowly, Murr said, the LAF was making steady
progress.

FAI KILLED INCLUDE PALESTINIAN-LEBANESE
AND LEBANESE SUNNIS PARDONED IN 2005
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4. (C) Asked about the identify of those killed, Murr
confirmed that, among the FAI bodies recovered by the LAF,
some were Lebanese citizens of Palestinian origin who had
benefited from a 1994 Syria-directed "nationalization"
program. Others were from the Dinniya extremist gang that
had attacked the LAF in January 2000 but who were pardoned
and released from prison in the July 2005 parliamentary
amnesty (the amnesty that also included the release of
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea). On Saturday night,
Murr reported that the LAF no longer is finding any foreign
fighters, only Lebanese citizens (including those of
Palestinian origin).


5. (C) Murr stated that he had visited the area three times
in the past three days. LAF morale, he reported, was high
and better than at the beginning of the operation. He has
directed LAF commanders to attempt to capture insurgents for
interrogation at the end of the operation, rather than kill
them. Ambassador urged that the LAF seek to seize arms and
materiel that USG could help analyze to determine their
source; Murr promised to do so.


BEIRUT 00000830 002 OF 002


CLAIMS OF INTERCEPTS
LINKING SYRIA AND FAI
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6. (S) Murr claimed the GOL now had information, including
an audio recording, linking Syria to insurgent operations in
Lebanon. A phone call from Syrian intelligence official
Assaf Shawkat's office to the FAI terrorists was intercepted,
Murr stated. The Ambassador urged that the GOL to make this
information available at the UN for the meeting on Lebanon on
Monday, June 11. In a subsequent phone conversation with the
Ambassador on Saturday evening (6/9),Murr said that the GOL
now had additional intercepts of Syrian officials instructing
FAI to fight to the death. The Ambassador urged Murr to
share this information through intelligence channels, which
Murr promised to do, and, if possible, provide releasable
information to the United Nations. Murr said that the GOL
would prepare a report for the UN outlining evidence of
Syrian interference in the Nahr al-Barid fight and elsewhere.

HIZBALLAH'S GRAD MISSILES:
GUARDED BY LAF; WON'T BE RETURNED
--------------


7. (C) On other issues, Ambassador asked about press
reports that the GOL had returned to Hizballah Grad missiles
that Lebanon's State Security organization had seized from
Hizballah in the Biqa' Valley a few days earlier. Denying
the press reports, Murr was emphatic that the LAF kept the
missiles and would not hand them over to Hizballah. He
insisted that they were at an LAF storage facility and even
registered in the LAF property management system. The
Ambassador urged Murr to allow USG access to the rockets, so
that we could attempt to trace the origin and production
dates. Murr agreed (although no specific arrangements were
made at this meeting),but he said that, unlike the February
LAF seizure of a Hizballah weapons truck, there were no
markings of any kind on the missiles or their packaging.


8. (C) The Ambassador raised the rumored interest of the
GOL in purchasing Russian sniper rifles, noting to Murr that
such a purchase would immediately unravel support for the LAF
within the USG. Murr confirmed that Russians had offered to
sell sniper rifles to the GOL, but he insisted that the GOL
would not pursue this. Like others, he thought that the
recent string of bombings were intended to send messages more
than cause injury. He agreed with the Ambassador that
Hizballah had been particularly quiet during the Nahr
al-Barid operation, theorizing that they are waiting to
determine how best to use the outcome for their advantage.
Commenting on the arrest a few days earlier in Bar Elias of
three men believed to be associated with al-Qaida, Murr said
(without explaining how he came to this conclusion) that the
two Syrians in the group had been in Lebanon for about two
months.
FELTMAN