Soldier Killed, 4 Hurt in Clash with Jaafar Family in Dar al-Wasaa

An army soldier was killed and four troops were wounded Monday in a clash with members of the Jaafar family in the Bekaa area of Dar al-Wasaa, state-run National News Agency reported.

The exchange of gunfire erupted as the army carried out a raid linked to the 2014 murder of Sobhi and Nadimeh Fakhri in the nearby town of Btedei, NNA said.

The violence prompted the army to send in reinforcements from the Commando Regiment to Dar al-Wasaa and to the Baalbek neighborhood of al-Sharawneh, where young men from the Jaafar family blocked the public road in protest at the crackdown.

A Syrian refugee woman was wounded in the face after armed protesters opened fire indiscriminately, the agency added.

Later in the day, eight of those who opened fire at the army turned themselves in to the military, NNA said.

An army statement said troops “came under heavy gunfire” from an armed group as they were raiding places in Dar al-Wasaa in search for fugitives involved in the Btedei incident.

Army forces managed to arrest the eight members of the group after encircling them in a building in a standoff that ended in their surrender, the statement added.

“Three of them turned out to be involved in the aforementioned crime and wanted by the Judicial Council,” the military said.

A quantity of arms and drugs was also seized in their possession.

Later on Monday, NNA said a wounded lieutenant colonel was evacuated in an army helicopter from the Dar al-Amal Hospital in Baalbek to a hospital in Beirut after his condition deteriorated.

The Fakhris were reportedly killed by gunmen from the Jaafar family who were fleeing army raids in Dar al-Wasaa. The armed men were reportedly trying to steal the couple's car.

A statement issued by the Jaafar family at the time said the man and the woman were killed in the crossfire.

The incident had sparked sectarian tensions in the confessionally-mixed region.

Y.R.