BEIRUT: The verdict on Saturday night’s shock attack on a cafe in an Alawite Tripoli neighborhood was clear: Lebanon, get ready, this is the beginning of a whole new wave of violence with deep-reaching effects on several issues. “The Jabal Mohsen bombing will be part of a sequence,” said Carnegie Middle East analyst Mario Abou Zeid, adding that Nusra Front, who claimed responsibility for the attack via one of its official Twitter accounts, still has sleeper cells in Tripoli and the operational ability to launch further attacks there.
In contrast to Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, Abou Zeid said he believed it was Nusra Front behind the deadly double suicide bombing that killed nine and wounded 30, not ISIS. But bombers Taha Samir al-Khayal and Bilal Mohammad al-Mariyan, he added, had reportedly been growing closer to ISIS.