By KUNA
Beirut : The Lebanese Army confirmed on Wednesday that Commander of the Operations Room of the army, Brigadier Francoise Al-Hajj, was killed in a fiery blast in the town of Baabda southeast of Beirut and that several military personnel also lost their lives in the explosion.
The army, in a statement, said, “The criminal hand has reached Brigadier Francoise Al-Hajj, the chief of the army’s operations, when a bomb went off near his car opposite the building of Baabda Municipality resulting in his instant death as well as the death of several military personnel.
“Several other people were also wounded in the explosion and the army troops sealed off the scene and started investigations.” The brigadier was reportedly nominated to succeed Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman once the latter elected as president of the republic.
Al-Hajj was among the senior commanders who were in charge of military operations against the shadowy militant group, “Fatah Al-Islam,” at the northern refugee camp of Nahr Al-Bared that had raged on throughout the summer.
The group of militants was led by a notorious activist, named Shaker Al-Absi, reportedly an ex-inmate in Jordan and Syria. The group reportedly plotted to establish a hardline Islamic emirate in northern Lebanon before the army clamped down on the group and wiped out its hideouts and bases.