Lebanon is buckling under the strain of Syria’s war The difficulty of hosting so many refugees from the conflict has been apparent for years in Lebanon, but in the past few days a stand-off has developed between militant fighters and the Lebanese army in the town of Arsal. The gunmen, also a combined force […]

    The bishops of Oriental Churches on Thursday demanded Muslim religious authorities to issue fatwas banning attacks against Christians and “other innocents” in the East, urging also parties financing terrorist organizations “to immediately stop arming” these extremist groups.   “We call on Muslim religious authorities, Sunnis and Shiites, to issue fatwas banning attacks against […]

Iraqi Christians who fled violence in their village arrive at a church in the Kurdish city of Erbil on Thursday. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

President Obama: U.S. Military Authorized to Make Targeted Airstrikes in Northern Iraq

*Obama: Airstrikes to Be Taken Only if Necessary

*Obama: U.S. Can’t Turn Blind Eye to Potential Act of Genocide

MORE TO COME

The Obama administration was preparing plans late Thursday for airstrikes against Islamist militants in northern Iraq, and began an emergency airdrop of water and food to members of a religious minority trapped in the mountains by advancing Islamist militants, U.S. officials said.

The sudden acceleration of U.S. military activity reflected White House concern over a burgeoning crisis in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of Iraq as the militant group calling itself Islamic State closed in on the area and pressed an offensive against local forces, seizing areas long considered safe. Militants on Thursday took over the Mosul Dam, the country’s largest, according to a local resident.

The administration was actively considering U.S. airstrikes against the militant group’s positions to protect U.S. military and diplomatic personnel working in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil. Pentagon officials said no U.S. strikes had begun by Thursday evening. An Iraqi military official said the Iraqi air force conducted some airstrikes Thursday.

Baghdad, Iraq, Aug 7, 2014 / 10:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The seizure of Iraq’s largest Christian town has prompted a mass exodus of refugees, which a leading Catholic bishop described as a Way of the Cross that could become a genocide unless the global community intervenes.   “They are facing a human catastrophe and risk a real genocide. They need water, food, shelter,” Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako of Babylon said in an Aug. 7 open letter.
“We appeal with sadness and pain to the conscience of all, and all people of good will and the United Nations and the European Union, to save these innocent persons from death,” he said. “We hope it is not too late!” His letter follows the fall of the city of Qaraqoush to forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant – known as ISIS – on Wednesday night. The town was one of Iraq’s largest Christian towns until the Kurdish military forces known as the Peshmerga withdrew from it.

Mourners gather during the funeral of Colonel Dani Harb (portrait), killed in recent clashes in Arsal, in the capital Beirut on August 6, 2014 (AFP

Syrian refugees sit in the back of a pick-up truck as they drive through the Lebanese village of Labweh in the Bekaa Valley on August 7, 2014 (AFP Photo/Joseph Eid)

A Syrian refugee girl sits on cement blocks amid damage and burnt tents from the fighting between Lebanese army soldiers and Islamist militants in the Sunni Muslim border town of Arsal, in eastern Bekaa Valley August 7, 2014

A general view shows damage and burnt tents for Syrian refugees from the fighting between Lebanese army soldiers and Islamist militants in the Sunni Muslim border town of Arsal, in eastern Bekaa Valley

Labweh (Lebanon) (AFP) – Hundreds of Syrian refugees headed home from Lebanon’s border town of Arsal and dozens of wounded were evacuated Thursday during a truce in fighting between jihadists and Lebanese soldiers.

The truce, announced Wednesday night by Sunni clerics serving as mediators, has raised hopes of an end to the worst violence in the area since the conflict in neighbouring Syria erupted in March 2011.

At least 17 soldiers have been killed battling the jihadists, who are reportedly from several different extremist groups fighting in Syria.

Another 22 soldiers have been captured, although three were freed Wednesday.

The exodus of refugees, who had reportedly sought to leave Arsal even before the clashes, was being facilitated by Lebanese authorities and a Syrian nun close to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Sister Agnes told AFP that 1,700 men, women and children, mostly from the Qalamun area just across the border from Arsal, were en route to the Masnaa border crossing. Another 3,000 refugees among the 47,000 sheltering in Arsal have also asked to leave to Syria, she said. – 44 wounded evacuated –

The departure of the refugees came as the truce appeared to be holding and no clashes were reported on Thursday.

The truce was announced by the mediators, who said the gunmen in control of the town had agreed to withdraw and that soldiers and policemen being held hostage would be released."The remaining armed men have undertaken to leave Arsal completely within 24 hours," cleric Samih Ezzedine said on Wednesday night.

"All the prisoners are alive and despite difficult negotiations we have clear and positive promises they will be released."

  Saudi Arabia has given Lebanon’s military $1bn to help its fight against self-declared jihadist fighters on the Syrian border.   The Saudi gift came as Lebanon army’s chief urged France to speed up promised weapons supplies and amid reports that a group of Muslim religious leaders were trying to mediate an end to the […]

Labweh (Lebanon) (AFP) – Jihadists who occupied eastern Lebanon’s Arsal near the Syrian border have agreed to leave in 24 hours and to release military and police hostages, Sunni clerics who mediated said Wednesday. A ceasefire has been "extended to 7 pm on Thursday (1600 GMT) following an agreement between Lebanon’s prime minister, the army command and the other concerned parties," chief negotiator Sheikh Hossam al-Ghali said.

"Fighters in Arsal have started to head across the Lebanese border" into Syria, Ghali said. But the fate of the deal was unclear as security sources reported intermittent clashes and army shelling just hours after it was announced.

The clerics went to Arsal to negotiate an end to clashes between the army and jihadists that began in the area on Saturday, killing at least 17 soldiers.

An initial truce was expected to run until Wednesday evening, allowing talks to continue and the evacuation of the wounded and trapped civilians.

Lebanon’s army says at least 22 of its soldiers have gone missing in the fighting, and are assumed to be held hostage by the militants, along with an estimated 20 policemen.

Another negotiator and fellow cleric, Samih Ezzedine, said: "The remaining armed men have undertaken to leave Arsal completely within 24 hours.

"They asked not to be shot at as they withdraw, and if that happens the whole agreement will be in jeopardy," he said.

"All the prisoners are alive and despite difficult negotiations we have clear and positive promises they will be released. I hope that will happen on Thursday," Ezzedine said.

However, the blocking of an aid convoy for Arsal by residents of the neighbouring Shiite village of Labweh set off sectarian tensions.

In the northern city of Tripoli, a homemade device exploded, wounding an unspecified number of people, a local security source said.

Protesters, meanwhile, set ablaze tyres on roads in Sunni districts of the city and on a road in the eastern Bekaa, AFP correspondents said.

An Arsal resident told AFP during the day that many of the jihadists appeared to have withdrawn from its streets.

The UN agency for refugees UNHCR said earlier in the week it had received reports from local field hospitals of 38 people killed and 268 wounded, though there was no official confirmation.

The fighting has prompted Lebanon’s army chief to call for more international aid, and on Tuesday night, Lebanon’s former prime minister Saad Hariri announced Saudi Arabia had pledged $1 billion.

The new aid pledge came after Saudi Arabia and France said they would both work to speed up implementation of a separate $3 billion arms deal for Lebanon.

That deal, announced last December, involves Saudi financing for the purchase of French equipment, but a list of what will be obtained has yet to be finalised.

The clashes in Arsal are the most serious in the border region since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011.

On Wednesday afternoon, an AFP correspondent said ambulances were entering Arsal and a military truck had evacuated some civilians.

– Stability fears –

The fighting has raised fears about the stability of Lebanon, which is hosting more than one million Syrian refugees and has seen existing political and sectarian tensions heightened by its neighbour’s war.

Many of Lebanon’s Sunnis, including residents of Arsal, back the uprising against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.

  Lebanon’s army chief General Jean Kahwaji urged France on Tuesday to speed up the delivery of weapons under a Saudi-financed deal, as his troops battle militants on the Syrian border.   "This battle requires equipment, materiel and technology that the army doesn’t have," Kahwaji told AFP. "That’s why we need to speed up the […]

    Army chief General Jean Qahwaji urged France on Tuesday to speed up the delivery of weapons under a Saudi-financed deal, as his troops battle jihadists on the Syrian border.   "This battle requires equipment, materiel and technology that the army doesn’t have," Qahwaji told Agence France Presse. "That’s why we need to speed up […]

Our Lebanese Army is a Red Line – Day 2 towards victory and wiping out the Terrorist groups that invaded Arsal             Prime Minister Tammam Salam described the assault as "a flagrant attack on the Lebanese state," and former prime minister Saad Hariri, the Sunni community’s most prominent political representative, […]