Army Continues to Target Militants in Ras Baalbek Outskirts

The Lebanese army targeted militant posts and movements on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek in the eastern Bekaa, media reports said on Tuesday.

The army heavily shelled the outskirts of the area where gunmen are entrenched.

For the past two days, the military has been targeting militants taking positions along Lebanon's eastern border with heavy artillery after bloody clashes with jihadists killed eight Lebanese troops and wounded several others in the Tallat al-Hamra area in Ras Baalbek “when terrorists attacked a military surveillance post.”

The mountainous area has long been a smuggling haven, with multiple routes into Syria that have been used since the conflict began in March 2011 to transport weapons and fighters.

Syria's civil war has regularly spilled into Lebanon, with jihadists briefly overrunning the eastern Lebanese town of Arsal in August after running gun battles with the army.

The jihadists withdrew after a ceasefire, but took with them several dozen hostages from the Lebanese army and police, four of whom have since been executed.

H.K.

G.K.