Conflict Incident Report

The inspection of departing passengers at Rafik Hariri International Airport was interrupted Wednesday due to a dispute between members of the Internal Security Forces and the Army, an airport source told The Daily Star.

The dispute caused the ISF personnel who check the passports of departing passengers to temporarily withdraw from their positions. Army personnel belonging to the airport security apparatus then briefly took over the job, adversely affecting the inspection process. Some local news outlets reported that the ISF personnel shut off “inspection machines” before leaving their posts.

One possible reason for the dispute, a judicial source told The Daily Star, was that the Army had received a tip that a wanted man was going to flee the country through the airport. This may have prompted plain-clothes and uniformed Army personnel to intervene at inspection points considered to be under the ISF’s jurisdiction, angering the agency and causing its officers to withdraw.

The airport source, however, said the dispute might have been the result of accumulated tensions between senior officers in the ISF and the Army at the airport. The relationship between Army Brig. Gen. George Doumit and ISF Col. Bilal al-Hajjar, who are among those who oversee operations at the airport, has been tense due to a conflict related to jurisdictional issues.