Army Reopens Labweh-Arsal Road, Deploys in Area

The Lebanese army reopened on Wednesday the Labweh-Arsal road in the eastern Bekaa Valley and sent reinforcements to Arsal, a Sunni border town blamed for rocket fire on Shiite areas, to deploy on its outskirts.

OTV said the military carried out patrols in the town on Wednesday morning.

It began deploying in the early hours of Wednesday, Arsal municipal council member Bakr Houjairi told Agence France Presse.

"The army arrived around 5:00 am, they have deployed in Arsal and they have opened the road leading out of the town towards Labweh," he said.

"So far the situation is very calm, we will see what will happen later, but we are happy to see the army here and opening the road up."

Over the weekend, Hizbullah gunmen and local Shiites closed off Arsal's only road to the rest of Lebanon by erecting a sandbagged checkpoint. The move came after residents of nearby Shiite areas blamed Arsal for rocket fire in recent days on their villages and a deadly car bombing in al-Nabi Othman.

But the blockade also appears to be aimed at containing a fresh influx of Syrian rebels and refugees into Arsal since Sunday, when President Bashar Assad's troops and his Hizbullah allies captured the opposition stronghold of Yabrud just across the border.

Shiite gunmen made clear their intentions to keep Arsal sealed off Tuesday by opening fire at vehicles that tried to drive up toward the checkpoint from the town, deputy mayor Ahmed Fliti said.

The shooting heightened despair within Arsal, now home to 40,000 Lebanese and 52,000 Syrian refugees for whom the road is a vital lifeline.

The blockade led to road closures across Lebanon Tuesday.

Sunni demonstrators used burning tires to close key roads in Beirut and elsewhere.

As Safir daily quoted Interior Minister Nuhad al-Mashnouq as saying on Wednesday that units from the Internal Security Forces and the army will enter Arsal in “coordination will all parties.”

He said that an ISF unit of around 50 members will remain in Arsal and their number would increase later.

“It is forbidden for anyone to block roads,” he said.

The units have clear instructions to impose the law and prevent the presence of gunmen or the infiltration of terrorists, al-Mashnouq told As Safir.

The deployment will be followed by the entrance of relief agencies that provide assistance to the Syrian refugees, he said.