Mustaqbal on Hujeiri Killing: Ugly Vengeance Won't Return Martyr Soldiers

Al-Mustaqbal movement condemned Tuesday the killing of a member of the al-Hujeiri family in the Bekaa earlier in the day, urging the government and the political and religious leaders to “intervene to foil strife.”

Hussein Mohammed al-Hujeiri, a nephew of fugitive Islamist cleric Mustafa al-Hujeiri, was shot dead earlier in the day at the hands of Maarouf Hamieh, who went into hiding after the incident.

Hamieh is the father of slain Lebanese soldier Mohammed Hamieh, who was executed by the Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front in 2014 in the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal.

The Hamieh family had accused Mustafa al-Hujeiri, aka Abou Taqiyeh, of ties to al-Nusra and involvement in the soldier’s killing. Maarouf Hamieh appeared in a video aired by al-Jadeed TV after the incident, in which he announced that he killed Mohammed al-Hujieri to “avenge” his son's death.

“This condemned crime that resulted in the death of this innocent young man only for being the nephew of a person accused of involvement in the kidnap of the soldiers is an ugly vengeance that will not return the martyr soldiers to their families,” Mustaqbal said in its statement.

“It jeopardizes civil peace in a manner that serves the goals of the terrorist groups, which are to blame for the crime of kidnapping our soldiers and murdering some of them,” the movement warned.

Cautioning against descent to “the law of the jungle,” Mustaqbal urged the government and the political and religious leaders to “intervene quickly to contain the dangerous repercussions of this murder and foil strife.”

It also called on the residents of Arsal, al-Labweh and the other northern Bekaa towns to seek pacification, “shun the approach of vendettas and adhere to the State and its institutions.”

Hamieh and three other soldiers and policemen were executed by al-Nusra and Islamic State jihadists after the two groups overran Arsal and engaged in deadly battles with the army in 2014.

Nine soldiers are still in the captivity of the IS group.

Y.R.

M.T.