BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army came under fire in northern Lebanon once again Thursday as the government struggled to reach a comprehensive plan to secure the release of soldiers held by jihadists near the outskirts of the embattled town of Arsal. Information Minister Ramzi Joreige said the release of the soldiers was a top priority for the Cabinet after a six-hour session in which ministers endorsed “all means of negotiations” to free the men held by the Nusra Front and ISIS, but offered scant details on the progress of the effort.
Joreige spoke shortly after the military said in a statement that two Army vehicles came under fire from the Misyada Syrian refugee camp in Arsal, prompting the soldiers to respond to fire. A third vehicle was targeted in the Akkar village of Qashlaq by gunfire from the Syrian side of the border, it said.
An Army post in Arsal came under attack by gunfire earlier from a Syrian refugee camp as troops repelled an infiltration attempt by jihadists in nearby Wadi Hmeid, the military said in another statement.
The statement said troops deployed at the northeastern border foiled a midnight attempt by “an armed terrorist group” to infiltrate an Army base in the rugged region on the outermost edge of Arsal.
It said the Army engaged in a brief armed clash with the infiltrators, forcing the “terrorists to withdraw and flee toward the highlands.”
In a separate incident, a soldier was shot dead and another wounded in an attack by gunmen in Akkar, the Army said.
Milad Mohammad Issa was instantly killed in the northern town of Rihaniyeh and a second soldier, Mohammad Haidar, was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.
The Army said it arrested 16 Syrians in raids in Akkar after the attack.
An Army source said that the attacks in the north and Arsal were part of attempts to target the military, fueled by incitement against the Army carried out by terrorist groups.
“We are up to the challenge,” the source stressed.
The Army fought a deadly five-day battle with ISIS and Nusra Front extremists in early August. The jihadists are holding 21 security personnel captive.
With little progress in the negotiations, Lebanon’s new Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian appealed to the captors to return the servicemen to their families unharmed.
“I tell the parties holding the servicemen: You are entrusted with their lives and you should safeguard them,” Derian said, speaking after his first official meeting with Prime Minister Tammam Salam since taking his post last month.
“I expect from you the great gesture of releasing them and letting them return to their families and their country.”
Health Minister Wael Abu Faour endorsed a prisoner swap with the militants, saying it was the only solution to the crisis.
“The Lebanese state wants to hold serious negotiations in that regard,” he said as he met the captives’ relatives, who shifted their protest campsite to Riad al-Solh, in front of the Grand Serail in Downtown Beirut.
Families of the hostages said the captors had warned them in phone calls that they would execute captives within 24 to 72 hours if there is no progress in the negotiations. Family members will meet General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim Friday.
Abu Faour cautioned that executing the hostages would “lead to a total destruction of negotiations and all efforts to resolve the issue.”
Meanwhile MPs botched a 13th attempt to elect a new president for Lebanon due to lack of quorum. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri postponed the voting session to Oct. 29.
Visitors of Berri quoted him as saying that the election of a president has an internal as well as an international component that depends on a rapprochement between the United States and Saudi Arabia and Iran.
No comments:
Post a Comment