BAALBEK, Lebanon: The Lebanese Army, backed by airborne forces, fired artillery shells at militant hideouts along the Syrian border following Tuesday’s ambush that killed six soldiers.
Security sources in Baalbek, east Lebanon, told The Daily Star that the Army pounded the area beyond the jihad positions with 130mm guns to make it difficult for the militants to retreat back into Qalamoun, a region on the slopes of the eastern mountain range between Lebanon and Syria that has become an Islamist stronghold.
They said the intense shelling continued throughout the night and into the early hours Wednesday.
Lebanese warplanes hovered above to monitor militants’ activity, the sources added.
The bombardment came after six Lebanese soldiers were killed and one wounded Tuesday in an ambush by militants near the Syrian border.
The ambush came hours after news of the arrest of ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s wife and child as well as the arrest of the wife of a Nusra Front commander was made public.
According to an Army statement, a military unit was ambushed by a “terrorist group” around 5:10 p.m. during a routine patrol. The ensuing clashes between the Army and militants killed six soldiers and wounded one, the statement added. Militant casualties were not known.
Sources told The Daily Star that the patrol came under fire in the village of Tal al-Sayl on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek. The troops attempted to communicate with central command in Ras Baalbek to inform them of the attack, but the communication was suddenly interrupted, sources said.
The affiliations of the militants were not immediately known. But the Army has routinely clashed with jihadi militants from both Nusra Front and ISIS on the eastern and northeastern border.
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