"We are faced today with one of the biggest dangers, which Arab and Western countries are already confronting, and that is terrorism, which strikes out whenever it has the chance," Kahwaji told a gathering of retired officers.
Heavily armed Hezbollah, a key ally of Syria's
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
, was struck last week by a massive car kaboom that left 27 people dead in its southern Beirut stronghold.
The attack came a month after another boom-mobile, also in that area, maimed some 50 people.
"I announce today that the army is engaged in a total war against terrorism. (The military) has been chasing for months a terrorist cell that prepares boom-mobiles and sends them to residential neighbourhoods," said Kahwaji, describing last Thursday's car blast as "one such" attack.
"The gravity, according to our intelligence, lies in the fact that this cell is not targeting any one region or community in particular, but that it aims to provoke sectarian strife by targeting different regions," said Kahwaji.