Agence France-Presse,
BEIRUT: Lebanon on Thursday marks the first anniversary of the devastating Israel-Hezbollah war, with the Shiite group opting to keep a low profile as the spotlight falls on the army and its attempt to put down an Islamist revolt.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora called on Lebanese to heal their deep political divisions and unite behind the army which has been locked in battle with the Sunni Islamist fighters in northern Lebanon for more than 50 days.
The military is seen as a unifying factor, with major institutions such as the parliament and presidency both paralysed amid an almost eight-month deadlock between the Siniora government and the Hezbollah-led opposition, backed by former powerbroker Syria.
Hezbollah sparked last summer's bloodshed with a cross-border raid in which it captured two Israeli soldiers who are believed to remain in its hands.
Sources close to the Iran-backed group, which held a massive victory rally after the UN-brokered ceasefire last August 14, said each area hit by the conflict would hold its own small celebrations, apparently for security reasons to avoid large crowds.
Its charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has been rarely seen in public since the conflict, figuring high on an Israel hit list. But the sources point out that the anniversary, like the war, would actually last more than a whole month.
“Just as we stood together to confront the aggression … I take this opportunity to extend my hand again to all our brothers,” Siniora said in a televised speech on Wednesday to mark the 34-day war.
“We have to return to dialogue and reconciliation,” said the head of the Western-backed government.
Siniora said unity was essential to overcome tough challenges ahead, especially post-war reconstruction, the extension of state authority over the whole of Lebanon, and implementation of long-awaited reforms.
He called for the army to put a “final end” to the Fatah al-Islam “criminal gang” fighting Lebanese troops.
A year after the war with Israel that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and wreaked devastation across much of the country, Beirut has been plunged in its most dangerous crises since the 1975-1990 civil war.
At least 174 people, including 86 soldiers and at least 68 Fatah al-Islam fighters, have been killed in the battles since May 20 around the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Lebanon.
Army chief Brigadier General Michel Sleiman held a ceremony on Wednesday to honour the 50 soldiers killed in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, although the army stayed largely out of the fighting.
“The blood that the soldiers offered in the July 2006 aggression has made the military institution the symbol of unity,” he said. “It is with this unity that the army is confronting the terrorists” of Fatah al-Islam.
Much of the infrastructure battered in the war with Israel has been restored but the rebuilding of homes has been slow and the services sector remains stagnant. International aid has flowed in, with pledges totalling 7.6 billion dollars made last January in Paris.
According to government figures, 91 of the country's 150 bridges were destroyed in the 34-day conflict, as Israel tried to cut the supply lines of the Shiite guerrillas of Hezbollah. Fifty-one of them have now been rebuilt.
On Thursday, exactly a year after war broke out, the Awali highway bridge, a major artery between the capital and south Lebanon that was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, was to be reopened.
At Beirut airport, which was also bombed by Israeli warplanes and closed throughout the summer war, the runways have been repaired, as have two of the three storage tanks for aircraft fuel.
Lebanon's services sector, which accounts for 70 percent of gross domestic product, remains badly affected — paralysed largely because of the uncertainty caused by the political crisis.
Another problem plaguing reconstruction comes from the controversial cluster bombs dropped by Israeli warplanes during the war.
