It didn’t take long after last week’s car bomb in Al-Roueiss for Hezbollah to lay out its plan of attack. The group immediately announced a retaliatory campaign against Sunni targets under the guise of targeting so-called “takfiris” in Lebanon. Hezbollah-allied media have specified by name the areas where the group is likely to launch operations with the help of its friends in the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), as well as sympathetic security services. More ominous, however, were Hezbollah’s accusations against former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the Future Movement, and its Sunni base, charging them with inciting, supporting, and harboring terrorist groups supposedly directed by Saudi intelligence chief, Bandar bin Sultan.
 

While some Lebanese politicians tried to temper domestic tensions by laying the blame for the bombing on Israel, Hezbollah quickly turned to its domestic rivals and rolled out its talking points right out of the gate. Speaking to Al-Manar TV at the site of the car bombing, Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar set the tone: “those who conspired against the resistance during the July [2006] war and who still pave the way to cover terrorist operations to cease these practices… It’s not the resistance that is attracting terrorism, rather it’s those who speak under false headlines.” [Link]