The
Lebanese Army have made advances in the third day of heavy fighting in Arsal, taking back full
control of the technical institute building that was attacked Sunday by armed groups, an Army
statement said Monday.
A security source told The Daily Star Monday that
the total number of killed Army soldiers had reached 13, after two officers among the missing 15
were confirmed dead. 40 soldiers were also wounded in the clashes, which claimed the lives of at
least six civilians.
However, militants losses so far have reached
50, and the Army arrested a further three in a raid Sunday that freed two wounded soldiers, the
source added.
Troops continued their military operations overnight,
striking gathering spots of militants with heavy shelling, the Army statement said, adding that
several soldiers were killed or wounded during the clashes to re-take the technical
institute.
The Army statement also highlighted attacks by the armed
groups against Arsal's civilians, saying the groups had executed citizens for not obeying their
commands.
“The terrorist groups are attacking the people of Arsal,
preventing them from leaving the town,” the statement said, mentioning that “a number of citizens
who refused to adhere to adhere to the groups” were “eliminated
yesterday.”
The source said that the gunmen are stationed in two main
positions in Arsal: the infirmary and a mosque. The militants are attempting to counter-attack from
the hills overlooking the village, but have been unsuccessful so far.
The
Army, which fought back against fierce clashes overnight Sunday, is planning to establish a
defensive line to protect the eastern town from attacks from Syrian territory, a security source
told The Daily Star earlier Monday.
The source said the line will be
established with a width of 50 km and a depth of 15 km, to protect the town from attacks and weapons
smuggling from the Syrian side of the border.
The Army is currently
shelling bases in militant-controlled Al-Hosn neighborhood, the source added, and is planning to
settle in the area after pushing the gunmen out. Once that is accomplished, the Army will have
secured all the entrances to Arsal, preventing the smuggling of militants or weapons into the
town.
Insulating Arsal from Syrian territory is a priority for the
Army, according to the source, because of the existence of extremist Syrian militants in the
hills.
Most of the gunmen that were inside Arsal, its neighborhoods
and its entrance from Labweh, had left the town to the nearby hills during the dawn hours, the
source added.
Arsal’s western borders, especially the hill overseeing
Labweh that lies along the main road has become the first line of defensive for the Lebanese Army.
State forces have taken control of the whole of this strategic hill, where militants attacked an
Army base next to the technical institute Sunday, killing the unit’s commander, his assistant and
two soldiers. The attack also led to the wounding of 25 soldiers, the most casualties in a single
incident during the 48-hour-battle’s clashes.
The source explained that
the Army is willing to go beyond Arsal in its military campaign, and to attack the militants’ lines
on the town’s periphery. However, it clarified that the Army had not yet performed any offensive
operations and as it was still defending against the attacks of the
militants.
The source said that no cease-fire between the militants and
the Lebanese Army would be possible, because the latter does not sign deals or make agreements with
militants, especially ones that originated outside the Lebanese
state.
The source added that while clashes were continued overnight, the
missile and artillery attacks had stopped early morning Monday. The National News Agency reported
Monday that the clashes were ongoing in Arsal's hills, especially in Ras As-Sarj and Wadi
Ata
What has been making the battle a difficult one for Army forces was
the rough geographical nature of Arsal, the source concluded.
The
Lebanese Army has vowed to end the battles in Arsal within 48
hours.
Initially it was believed that the clashes and the kidnapping of
31 Lebanese security forces - 15 Army and 16 ISF - was sparked by the detainment of Imad Ahmad
Joumaa, a prominent Syrian rebel commander. However, speaking at a rare news conference Sunday,
chief of the Lebanese Army, Gen. Jean Kahwagi said the attack was
premeditated.
“What happened today is far more dangerous than what some
people believe,” he said. “The terrorist attack was not an attack by chance or coincidence. It was
planned long ago, waiting for the appropriate time.”
The scale of the
threat posed by these militants was acknowledged by the country’s politicians, with Prime Minister
Tammam Salam chairing an extraordinary security meeting at the Grand Serail Sunday and a Cabinet
meeting to follow up on the developments scheduled for 12 p.m.
Monday.
Hezbollah has praised the military’s determination to confront
“criminal attacks by terrorist groups” on Lebanon’s people and Army, and voiced solidarity with the
military institution.
However is it not participating actively on the
ground in Arsal to avoid raising any sectarian tensions.
The fighting
in Arsal also sparked clashes in the northern city of Tripoli with after militants attacked several
Army posts there overnight Saturday, wounding two soldiers, security sources told The Daily
Star.
Gunmen affiliated with militia leaders Chadi al-Mawlawi, his
brother Nizar Mawlawi and Osama Mansour, known as Abu Mansour, attacked Army posts in the
impoverished neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades in
retaliation for the Army’s operation against militants in Arsal, the sources said. They added that
the Army took measures to beef up its positions and checkpoints in Tripoli to forestall any
attack.
Bassil appeals for military assistance for the Army
BEIRUT: Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil appealed Monday for immediate military support for the Lebanese Army, which is battling a group of Takfiri militants from Syria in the eastern Bekaa border town of Arsal.
Speaking at the opening of an emergency meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran, Bassil said: “Lebanon appeals to you to stand on its side and asks for immediate [military] assistance for its Army in order to confront Takfiri terrorism.”
Citing rules of international law, Bassil said “it allows Lebanon to defend itself as much as it permits international support for Lebanon.”
The fighting in Arsal - which the chief of the Lebanese Army, Gen. Jean Kahwagi, described as premeditated - broke out over the weekend after the Army arrested a notorious member of Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, Imad Ahmad Jomaa, and has so far claimed the lives of 13 soldiers and at least 40 militants, heightening fears Lebanon could be dragged further into the Syrian war.
Bassil deplored that Lebanon “which had experienced Israeli terrorism,” through several wars waged by Israel since the 1982 invasion, “is now witnessing another type of terrorism, that of the Takfiri groups.”
“Terrorism has settled in Arsal, this Lebanese town, where a number of refugees who had sheltered in it, are killing and displacing its people instead of thanking them for their hospitality,” Bassil told the meeting, held to discuss Israel’s offensive on Gaza.
Bassil charged that Israeli terrorism and that of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are two sides of the same coin.
“Israeli terrorism is carried out in the name of the Jews, while ISIS Takfiri terrorism is being waged in the name of Islam,” Bassil said, arguing that “the scheme of dividing the region into sectarian entities is done to justify Israel’s Jewish entity.”