February 06, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 27, 1429

BEIRUT: A spate of attacks against the Lebanese army signals a concerted effort to weaken the military and bury the army chief’s chances of becoming president, analysts say.

In the run-up to a much-postponed presidential election, the army has been caught in violent confrontations with protesters in which seven people were killed and army posts have been hit by grenade and gunfire.

Long seen as the only neutral and viable institution in Lebanon’s political mayhem, the army was drawn into the eye of the storm last year when it fought pitched battles with Muslim extremists in a Palestinian refugee camp.

The army’s chief of military operations, Brigadier General Francois Hajj, who helped defeat the Islamists at the Nahr el-Bared camp, was killed in a massive car bombing in December.

“The floodgates of hell have been opened vis a vis the army ever since Nahr el-Bared,” said Amal Saad-Ghorayeb of the Carnegie Middle East Centre.

“It all points to a concerted campaign designed to weaken the army and... sow civil strife,” she said.

“And clearly all this is directed at army chief General Michel Sleiman.”

Sleiman emerged in Dece-mber as the consensus candidate to succeed pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud who ended his term in November. But his election has been on hold amid bickering between pro- and anti-Syrian politicians.

“Many parties don’t want Sleiman to be president, and each one for his own reason, but they intersect in one area: not to have a presidential election,” said retired army general Elias Hanna.

“All these incidents against the army cannot be seen as separate from the political context and the evolution of the army’s role within politics,” Hanna added.—AFP