Khazen

Lebanese army soldiers search civilians at a checkpoint at the entrance of Arsal.  (BILAL HUSSEIN / AP FILE PHOTO)

by english.aawsat.com, The Lebanese army intelligence on Saturday killed an ISIS leader and
arrested ten terrorists after they came over the northeastern border
from Syria, the military and the state-run National News Agency said. “An army unit carried out a swift raid at dawn today in Arsal,
resulting in the arrest of 10 dangerous terrorists who had previously
infiltrated it,” a communique issued by the military general command
said. No army personnel were reported injured or killed in the raid in the
area of Wadi al-Hosn that lies on the outskirts of Arsal which militants
briefly overran in 2014. According to NNA, the special operation carried out by the army at dawn Saturday left a Syrian ISIS commander dead. The agency identified the militant as Alaa al-Halabi.

He is one of the terrorists who issued a fatwa to execute several
Lebanese servicemen who were kidnapped when militants from ISIS and
formerly known al-Nusra Front overran Arsal in August 2014, NNA said. Al-Halabi hails from the town of Qara in the Syrian capital’s suburbs near the Lebanese border, the agency added. In December 2015, al-Nusra freed 16 Lebanese soldiers and policemen
it had captured in Arsal in a prisoner swap. But the fate of nine other
servicemen taken hostage by ISIS remains unknown. The Lebanese army stages regular operations against ISIS and al-Nusra militants in the mountainous region.