BEIRUT, 29 December (IRIN) - The Lebanese government has increased the presence of security personnel throughout the country ahead of New Year's celebrations, following threats and a series of bomb attacks this year. "We have doubled our patrols," said an official from the Beirut police who wished to remain anonymous. "From 700 staff we went up to 1,400," he added. Temporary checkpoints have been installed throughout the capital and night and day patrols have been brought up from 8 to 25, with 311 officers patrolling at night.

In addition, five security officers are posted at the entrance of every mall. "The army has also posted troops at the entrance of several towns and in public places throughout the country," the police officer said. On 22 December, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora asked the defense and interior ministers to draft an emergency security plan ahead of the festive holidays. The move comes after journalist and MP Gebran Tueini was killed in a car bomb on 12 December. It was the fourth political killing in Lebanon this year, which started with the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on 14 February, followed by three anti-Syrian journalists and politicians.

By Jim Teeple, Israeli warplanes have struck a Palestinian militant base in southern Lebanon. Two Palestinian were reportedly injured in the raid. The air strike followed a rocket attack against two Israeli towns near the Lebanese border. Israeli aircraft struck a base belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, a small pro-Syrian Palestinian militant group based in Naameh, about eight kilometers south of Beirut.

The strike followed a series of rocket attacks Tuesday night against the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona and the nearby village of Shlomi. The area is a frequent target of rocket attacks from Lebanese territory. A spokesman for the Palestinian group targeted in Wednesday's strike denied his group's involvement in the rocket attacks. Most attacks against northern Israel are carried out by the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, but a Hezbollah spokesman also denied involvement in the latest rocket attacks.

Lebanese Minister of Energy And Water, Mohammed Fneish, underlined Sunday importance of preserving "the distinguished relation with Syria .. To fortify Lebanon against foreign interventions and against the Israeli danger we must have good ties with Syria," Fneish said in political symposium in Shqra town, shorthorn Lebanon.

The minister stressed that those who want to create disagreement with Syria, they definitely want to weaken Lebanon.Head of al-Wafaa Bloc for the Lebanese Resistance at the Lebanese parliament Mohammed Raad called upon all political powers in Lebanon for a national dialogue including all on national issues on top of which are relation with Syria, preserving the resistance and its weapon as well, as revealing the truth about the crime that claimed the life of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri. The Lebanese MP called all sides to take their stances and decisions away from the "illusions of international support and interference."

The Lebanese Druze leader and parliamentarian Walid Junblat launched an unprecedented criticism against the Lebanese Hizbullah party. During his meeting with a people delegation in his house in Mukhtara in Mount Lebanon, he called on Hizbullah to prove his commitment to Lebanon first ahead of his cling to the alliance with Syria," according to al-Jazeera satellite TV.

Junblat's statement was made on the background of statements made on Saturday by the secretary general of the Lebanese Hizbullah party Sheikh Hassan nasrullah to al-Manar TV channel in which he said "to the one who want to take us to a war with Syria, we say that the first looser of this war is Lebanon." Worthy mentioning that relations between the two sides- on opposing sides concerning relations with Syria, remained steadfast until the assassination of Gebran Tueni when Junblat and Syria's opponents accused Syria of being behind it.