Brothers Sought in Paris Blasts Fear Vengeance

Four Lebanese brothers wanted by France in connection with recent fatal bombings in Paris said Sunday they are keeping a 24-hour vigil at their north Lebanon home because they fear French agents will try to kill them.

“Of course we are afraid,” said Joseph Ibrahim Abdallah, the eldest of the four. “French authorities have plenty of collaborators all over Lebanon.”

Joseph, 35, and his brothers, Emile, 30, Maurice, 23, and Robert, 20, stand guard in shifts at their two-story house on the eastern edge of Koubayet.

About a dozen neighbors have been helping keep vigil since France announced last week that the brothers are among nine Lebanese wanted in connection with the Paris bombings. The brothers have denied involvement.

Lebanese Premier Rashid Karami said Sunday that he will begin an investigation to clear the brothers, and he accused Israel’s Mossad secret service of involvement in the bombings.

Five bombings in Paris beginning Sept. 8 killed eight people and wounded more than 160. The Committee for Solidarity with Arab and Middle Eastern Political Prisoners has claimed responsibility. French police believe the name is a cover for the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Faction and that the Abdallah brothers belong to the group.

They believe the group is headed by a fifth Abdallah brother, Georges, 35, who is serving a four-year prison term in France for possessing weapons and false documents. He also faces trial on charges of complicity in the 1982 killings of a U.S. military attache and an Israeli diplomat.

The Committee for Solidarity demands that France free Abdallah and two other Lebanese.

The Abdallahs are Lebanese Maronite Catholics, but French police said Georges Abdallah told them when arrested in 1984 that he fought for the Palestinian cause.

Joseph Abdallah said that members of the rightist Falangist Party of President Amin Gemayel, a Maronite, and the affiliated Lebanese Forces militia “are more than willing to work for the French secret service.”

He added: “We’re progressive Maronites and the Falangists are fascist Maronites. They want to show the world that there are no progressive Maronites. So they smear our reputation by claiming we are terrorists.”