NEAR EAST -- LEBANON: PLANNING TO PROSECUTE SHAYKH FOR BOMBING

Created: 2/13/1998

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

APPROVED FOR PElfASE DRIIHUG 2DD1

Friday,8

Current Notes

NEAR EAST

To Prosecute Shaykh for Bombing|

Lebanon's highest court last week announced it intends io try ousted former Hizballah leader Tufayli for the deaths of two Lebanese soldiers -killedecent shootout with Tufayliwell as for crimes he committed during the civil war. including the bombing of the US Marine Corps barrackswo weeks after the shootout Tufayli remains at large.

yli and several hundred supporters are hiding in the mountains near the Syrian border.

The Lebanese Armed Forces have blocked all road access to the area but are awaiting political authorization before moving to try to capture him.l

w Marine

barracks bombing. Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri would be demonstrating to the US that he is trying to follow through on bilateral security cnmmitmcn(s|

Hizballah. Iran, Syria, and many Lebanese officials are likely to support quietly removing Tufayli from Lebanon because he could implicate themariety of illegal activities, including terrorist operations against Americans. Tufayli's disappearance would help eliminate domestic criticism of Hizballah and strengthen the group's influence in the Lebanese Government.!

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