Lebanese Army arrests 11 after deadly ambush
The Daily Star/Dec. 05, 2014
BEIRUT: The Army confirmed Thursday that 11 suspected militants had been arrested during raids in northeast Lebanon following an ambush that killed six soldiers on the border with Syria earlier this week. In a statement, the military said 11 individuals had been arrested Wednesday during Army raids in the Arsal region on suspicion of involvement in attacks against the Army and having ties with terrorist groups. Tuesday’s ambush took place on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek, several miles north of Arsal.
Adjutant Mahmoud Noureddine was also killed Wednesday and two other soldiers wounded on the outskirts of Arsal as they tried to defuse a bomb. The statement said the Army had arrested another man in the northern region of Dinnieh on suspicion of links to wanted individuals.In a later statement, the Army said an intelligence patrol in Masharih al-Qaa had also arrested Syrian national Omar Saleh Amer for belonging to an armed terrorist group and committing various crimes.
No group has claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks against the Army, but the military has been confronting militants from ISIS and the Nusra Front holed up in mountainous areas on the northeastern border with Syria over the past months. Both groups briefly overran Arsal in August. Army Commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi said in remarks published Thursday that the military was in an open-ended war with Islamist militants on the Syrian border. “Our battle with terrorism and terrorists is an open-ended war, and we expect it to be a war of attrition, especially after we penetrated deep into the outskirts and remote zones,” Kahwagi told local daily An-Nahar.
Kahwagi indicated that ISIS and the Nusra Front had been shaken by the Army’s pre-emptive strikes. “The terrorists are now responding to the Army’s pre-emptive strikes against them. There have already been many [strikes] and there will be more and consistent pre-emptive strikes,” Kahwagi warned the jihadis.Key ISIS and Nusra Front figures have been arrested in recent months.
Kahwagi, however, did not give a direct answer when asked whether the militants’ recent deadly attacks against the Lebanese Army might be linked to the arrest of Saja Dulaimi, the ex-wife of ISIS leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi. News of Dulaimi’s arrest was released this week. Kahwagi said the Army strikes against extremist militants would continue “until they are defeated, no matter how long [it takes].” “We are not weak at all,” he said. “We are strong. We are troopers. For each blow we receive we respond with 100 blows. We will defeat them no matter the sacrifices.”Also Thursday, Adjutant Noureddine was laid to rest in his Nabatieh village of Kfar Roummane. “I will not see you after today Mahmoud,” lamented Oula Abu Zeid, Noureddine’s wife, as she bid her husband farewell. “I was waiting for you here, at the entrance to our house, [to see you] come back from your absence, which will last long this time.”
The two had only been married for four months when Noureddine was killed. “Who do I wait for after today,” his wife said, before scattering a bundle of flowers on his casket. The soldier’s mother fainted as the corpse was carried into the house before the burial. Noureddine’s father, Ali, waxed nostalgic as he remembered tales his son had told him about “his heroism in Baalbek and the Bekaa Valley.”The soldier’s uncle, Abdel-Halim, recalled the last conversation he had with his nephew before his death. “He told me before his martyrdom that the battle in [the Bekaa] was harsh and that we had to be strong because we were battling both takfiri terrorism and Israel.” Separately, eight masked gunmen in two pickups broke into a stone quarry in Arsal’s Wadi Zaarour owned by local resident Bilal Hujeiri and escaped with equipment.Before fleeing, the gunmen told workers at the quarry that Hujeiri, who was not there during the attack, was on ISIS’ hit list for “collaborating with the Army.”Prime Minister Tammam Salam will chair a security meeting Friday at the Grand Serail to discuss recent incidents.
