May God Bless our Lebanese Army. Khazen.org is very thankful of the Lebanese Army – The Lebanese Army that keeps Lebanon Spirit High & Safe!

We stand by the Lebanese Army and we hope they put an end to these ISIS and al Qaeda groups invading Arsal town in Lebanon

Pray for the Lebanese Army

 

Lebanon’s army chief General Jean Kahwaji talks during a news conference in Beirut August 3, 2014.

 

ISIS can run but cannot hide from our Lebanese Army – Proud Lebanon

 

 

 

 

 

A Lebanese army medical evacuation APC drives to the entrance of the town of Arsal in the Bekaa valley by the Syrian border on August 2, 2014 (AFP Photo/)

Lebanese army soldiers search civilians at a checkpoint at the entrance of Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town near the Syrian border in eastern Lebanon, some 88 kilometers (54 miles) from the capital, Beirut. Rebels fighting in Syria’s civil war crossed into Lebanon and raided a border town on Saturday, Aug 2, 2014, killing and capturing security force members in the most serious incursion into the tiny country during its neighbor’s 3-year-old conflict. (AP

 

Smoke billows from the Lebanese town of Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town near the Syrian border in eastern Lebanon, Saturday, Aug 2, 2014.

 

Gunmen drive away with about a dozen men, two in camouflage police uniforms, in Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town near the Syrian border in eastern Lebanon, Saturday, Aug 2, 2014

 

Lebanese soldiers ride in the back of an army vehicle with detained suspected militants in the Lebanese town of Arsal, a primarily Sunni Muslim town near the Syrian border in eastern Lebanon, Sunday, Aug 3, 2014.

 

 

Lebanon’s army chief General Jean Kahwaji addresses a news conference in Beirut August 3, 2014.

 

Lebanese Army soldiers and relatives of Druze soldier Khaldoon Raouf Hamoud carry his coffin during his funeral in Akbeh, Rashaya August 3, 2014.

 

Relatives of Druze soldier Khaldoon Raouf Hamoud mourn over his dead body during his funeral in Akbeh, Rashaya August 3, 2014.

 

Gunmen drive away with about a dozen men, two in camouflage police uniforms, in Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town near the Syrian border in eastern Lebanon, Saturday, Aug 2, 2014

 

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese soldiers traded fire with Islamist gunmen and shelled areas around the border town of Arsal on Sunday in a push to dislodge the biggest incursion by militants into Lebanon since Syria’s civil war began. At least 10 Lebanese soldiers have died in the fighting, which erupted after Islamist gunmen seized a local police station after the arrest of one of their leaders on Saturday – an attack army chief General Jean Kahwaji said was premeditated.

"What happened is far more dangerous than some believe," Kahwaji told reporters in Beirut, saying the arrested commander had admitted to planning a large attack against army positions. "The terrorist attack which occurred yesterday was not an attack by chance or coincidence. It was planned previously, a long time ago, awaiting the appropriate time," he said.

At least 90 militants and possibly dozens, were also killed in the fighting and more than a dozen members of Lebanon’s security forces were taken captive. Security officials say the gunmen in Arsal include fighters linked to the Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot that has seized territory in Syria and Iraq, as well as Syria’s al Qaeda branch, the Nusra Front. "They’re shelling from all directions," said Qassem Al-Zein, a doctor at the field hospital in Arsal, adding that the hospital had recorded 10 civilians killed so far..

 The confrontation in Arsal has been the biggest direct clash between its army and rebels fighting to overthrow Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.

Lebanon’s militant Shi’ite group Hezbollah had deployed its fighters around Arsal, a Sunni town sandwiched between Syrian government-controlled territory and Lebanese Shi’ite areas sympathetic to the group, a source said on Saturday.

Syrian activists in the town said Hezbollah appeared to have been involved in the fighting, but this was not possible to verify and there was no comment from the group.

Hezbollah fighters have regularly taken part in battles against the Sunni rebels just over the border in Syria’s Qalamoun region for months, helping the Assad government forces to flush out insurgents from towns and villages near the border.

MUTUAL RECRIMINATIONS

Lebanon has been buffeted by the same waves of conflict that have brought about the rise of hardline Sunni militants in Syria and Iraq. On Sunday Islamic State fighters seized Iraq’s biggest dam, an oilfield and three towns.

Kahwaji said Lebanon’s army would resist any attempts to import Syria’s war into his country.

Earlier on Sunday, fighting erupted briefly in Lebanon’s main northern coastal city of Tripoli, where Syria’s war has enflamed decades-old tensions between local Sunnis and Alawites.

Soldiers battled masked gunmen overnight and into Sunday after militants opened fire on army positions in several areas of the port, the National News Agency said. A bomb also targeted an army patrol, wounding an officer and a soldier, it said.

Officials across Lebanon’s political spectrum have condemned the Arsal attack, but in a sign of the country’s own deep tensions some also took the opportunity to criticize their foes.

Jamil al-Sayyed, a Shi’ite and former head of Lebanon’s General Security agency, said responsibility for what was happening in Arsal fell on the Sunni-led Future Movement bloc.

Former prime minister Fouad Siniora, a Sunni, called for Syrian gunmen to withdraw from Lebanon but also said Hezbollah fighters must leave Syria.

Lebanon’s perennial political deadlock has been worsened by tensions over Syria – the country has been unable to elect a president since May because of disagreement over a candidate between its main Sunni and Shi’ite-led parliamentary blocs.

TINDERBOX

Arsal has long been a tinderbox for Lebanon’s tensions. Rebels operating across the border in Syria’s mountainous Qalamoun region have frequently crossed the porous border, often resting or seeking medical treatment in town.

Lebanon is hosting more than one million refugees who have fled Syria’s conflict. More than 100,000 of them are estimated to be living in and around Arsal in makeshift camps spread throughout the surrounding hills.

Saturday’s fighting started after Lebanese security forces arrested Emad Jumaa, a rebel commander popular among the hardline Islamist fighters in the area.

Soon afterward, gunmen seized the police station, attacking army checkpoints, taking at least 16 members of Lebanon’s security forces captive and demanding that Jumaa be freed. Kahwaji said the army had suffered 10 dead and 25 wounded, while 13 were still missing and may have been taken hostage.

Lebanese military vehicles have deployed around Arsal and shelled the area while Syrian warplanes have been bombing rebel positions in the town’s environs, residents say.

"The situation is bad," Arsal’s mayor Ali al-Hujeiri said when reached briefly by phone. "Very, very bad."

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry; Editing by Gareth Jones)