Hello? Hello?
Is anybody there?
Anybody?Helloooo? |
Private communication networks installed illegally in Beirut by the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah have been removed, a cabinet minister said Wednesday. "Minister of Telecommunications Marwan Hamadeh informed the government that ... the cables that had been installed in Beirut have recently been removed," Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after a cabinet meeting. "It is necessary to continue the action in the other regions" where the cables have also been also installed by Hezbollah, he told reporters.
On August 27, the government formed a committee to draft a report on information that Hezbollah had installed its own system of communication in Beirut, its suburbs and the south of the country. The Lebanese government had on August 8 disclosed that a secret underground telecommunications network has been set up by Hezbollah throughout south Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut. Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh revealed that the installation of underground cables, which run parallel to the state's phone system, had been "discovered by chance and following rumors" in the southern town of Zawtar al-Sharqieh in the Nabatiyeh district.
Hamadeh said authorities would launch a "speedy" probe into the set up of a new phone line networking by Hezbollah in south Lebanon. He said that "technical reports" later showed that the work has expanded to reach Yohmor in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, with another wireless networking being set up between the southern port city of Tyre and Abbassieh as well as in other regions of Tyre province. Sources close to Hezbollah said such a network was set up for the "security protection" of the groups' leaders. |