BAALBEK/BEIRUT: Militants from the Nusra Front executed an abducted Army soldier Friday, security sources said, hours after two Lebanese soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in the northeastern town of Arsal.
The execution of Mohammad Maarouf Hammieh marks the first killing of a Nusra Front captive. Two soldiers had previously been beheaded by ISIS militants.
The sources confirmed that Hammieh, who hails from the Baalbek village of Taraya in the Bekaa Valley, was shot by the militants.
“Mohammad Hammieh is the first victim of the intransigence of the Lebanese Army, which has become a puppet [of Hezbollah]” a Nusra-affiliated Twitter page said Friday.
The Nusra Front and ISIS are still holding at least 21 soldiers and policemen captive.
The Nusra Front first threatened to kill Hammieh Tuesday, saying that he might be the first “to pay the price” of failed negotiations with the Lebanese government and Hezbollah’s continued crackdown on Syrian refugees in Arsal and along the town’s borders.
The government has been engaged in indirect negotiations through a Qatari-sponsored mediation with militants over the release of the abducted security personnel.
Nusra Front and ISIS are both demanding the release of Islamist prisoners from Roumieh Prison in exchange for the Lebanese hostages.
Earlier Friday, two Lebanese soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb that targeted a military truck in Arsal, in an attack that heightened fears of a new bout of fighting between the Army and Islamist militants.
Friday’s was the first attack against the Army since ISIS and Nusra Front militants overran Arsal last month and engaged in five days of pitched battles with Lebanese troops.
“Two soldiers were killed and three wounded when an Army truck was targeted with a bomb explosion at 12:15 p.m. while it was traveling inside the town of Arsal,” the military said in a statement. It added that troops had quickly cordoned off the site of the explosion and military police had launched an investigation.
In another statement later, the Army said the bomb, which consisted of about 10 kilograms of inflammable materials, had been detonated by remote control.
The explosion occurred as the military truck made its way to Wadi Hmeid on the outskirts of Arsal, a security source told The Daily Star.
The two dead soldiers were identified as Mohammad Daher from the northern village of Aydamoun in Akkar and Ali al-Kharrat from the southern city of Sidon. The three wounded were identified as Mahmoud Fadel, Yehya Mheish and Mohammad al-Baghrini.
Following the bombing, Army units raided houses in Arsal, including Wadi Hmeid, in search of militants, as Syrian jets bombed the outskirts of the region on the Syrian side of the border, a security source said.
Troops arrested a large number of suspects, who are being interrogated, an Army statement said.
The Army later used heavy weapons to target militant positions around Arsal, the National News Agency reported.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam called for readiness to face “takfiri forces” in their continuing attacks on Arsal.
The attack on the Army drew nationwide condemnation.
“We support the efforts of the Army and its command in protecting the border from the infiltration of terrorists and other groups working to incite strife in Lebanon,” former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said in a statement. “We salute the fallen soldiers who were on the front line of defending Lebanon.”
Hariri spoke with Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi by phone to discuss the security situation in Arsal as well as the bomb attack.
Hariri said the attack should be an additional incentive for the Army to combat terrorism with all means available, hold terrorists accountable and “protect Arsal and its people from the forces of extremism.”
Hezbollah also condemned the attack, while commending the military’s efforts to deal with the infiltration of militants into Lebanon.
General Security personnel arrested 11 Syrians in Khartoum, near Tyre, on suspicion of belonging to terrorist groups. Five were released and the other six were being held for further investigation, a General Security source told The Daily Star.
Relatives of soldier Abbas Medlej, whom ISIS beheaded earlier this month, briefly blocked a major highway in Baalbek Friday after reports surfaced that the Army had detained several Syrians who were present during his execution.
Medlej’s parents gathered dozens of their relatives and burned tires to block the entrance to the eastern city of Baalbek, demanding that authorities hand over one of the Syrians rumored to have beheaded their son.
A security source told The Daily Star that three Syrians arrested earlier this week in Baalbek were thought to have been involved in the beheading of Medlej.
The security source identified the Syrians who were detained for entering Lebanon illegally as Dahham Abdul-Aziz Ramadan, 18; Abdullah Ahmad al-Salloum, 21; and Khaled Walid Zakir, 39.
The Army said a Lebanese man identified as Bassam Hujeiri had been detained for lacking proper identification documents, along with Syrians Ahmad Samir Heen and Fadi Ammar al-Halabi. During interrogation, the two Syrians confessed to belonging to a terrorist organization, the Army said in its statement, adding that the three were being detained in the Arsal region.The Lebanese Army has beefed up security in the northeastern region following last month’s deadly clashes with ISIS and Nusra Front militants in and around Arsal, which was being used by the gunmen as a strategic smuggling route between Lebanon and Syria.
Soldiers have arrested a number of Syrians suspected of belonging to radical groups as well as being involved in the clashes, which left 19 soldiers dead.
In the northern city of Tripoli, unknown attackers threw a grenade at an Army checkpoint, but no casualties were reported, security sources told The Daily Star. The assault targeted the Army checkpoint on the Omari road that separates the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.
