A military court dropped terrorism charges filed against a former colonel in the Syrian Army who had defected with his family to Tripoli. Salafist Sheikh Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal and his followers blocked a border crossing into Syria to protest the recent arrest of Islamist leader Abdel-Qader Abdel-Fattah by army intelligence. Tripoli-based Islamist preacher Sheikh Omar Bakri claimed that al Qaeda is not present in Lebanon but said he wished they were. Naim al-Qassem, Hezbollah’s second in command, called the recent deal on the Iranian nuclear program a victory for Iran, Arabs, Muslims, and “all the free people of the world.”
