Report: Clashes between Palestinian Group, Nusra Front in Bekaa

Clashes erupted between the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and al-Nusra Front in the Eastern Mountain range along the border with Syria, media reports said on Wednesday.

Al-Liwaa newspaper reported that various kinds of machinguns, rockets and arms were used during the battles in the Qusaya area in the eastern Bekaa valley, where the PFLP-GC has a military base.

The state-run National News Agency reported that the clashes were accompanied by the firing of eight flare bombs by the Israeli army, which lit up the sky above its spying station in Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh) on the outskirts of Qusaya.

No further details were available.

This is the first such report on clashes between the Palestinian group and Islamists from al-Nusra Front.

However, gunbattles erupted between the PFLP-GC and unknown militants in central Bekaa in August.

The group said then in a statement that gunmen targeted its post in addition to an army position in Ain al-Baida near Kfar Zabad.

The PFLP-GC, the most radical Palestinian faction whose command is based in Damascus with unlimited support from Syria, has maintained military bases in the eastern Bekaa Valley as well as in the hills of Naameh south of Beirut for the last 23 years.

The PFLP-GC is the only Palestinian faction that maintains significant military positions outside the 12 Palestinian camps in Lebanon.

PFLP-GC bases in Naameh and the Bekaa have long been the target of Israeli air attacks.

H.K.

G.K.