Report: 3,000 Islamist Fighters Entrenched along Lebanon's Eastern Border
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
As the Lebanese army continues to press an offensive against Islamist militants on the outskirts of the northeastern border towns, in cooperation with the Syrian military and Hizbullah, gunmen are still exerting efforts to infiltrate Lebanon.
As Safir newspaper reported on Friday that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front are currently controlling around 992 kilometers of the outskirts between Syria and Lebanon on the country's Eastern Mountain Range, with 450 kilometers inside Lebanon.
The number of armed men entrenched in the area is around 3,000, including 1,500 fighters that defected the Free Syrian Army and joined the two Islamist groups.
The report said that 750 pledged allegiance to al-Nusra and 800 to ISIL.
According to the newspaper, ISIL and al-Nusra are controlling the outskirts of Asal al-Wared in the Syrian al-Qalamoun, and the upper outskirts of the northeastern border towns of Arsal, Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa.
The militants' area of control reportedly oversees Lebanese areas in the Bekaa Valley, including Brital, Baalbek and Nahlet Younnine.
The daily said that the illegal crossings in Arsal, in particular the Syrian encampments (14) outside the Lebanese army's area of control, are the main funding source for the gunmen.
The two groups reportedly possess a wide range of heavy and light ammunition, in addition to hundreds of rockets, including anti-tank missiles, and a small number of tanks and armored vehicles.
The report comes in light of a military operation on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek in line with efforts to secure villages near the eastern border with neighboring Syria. The Lebanese army seized last week two hilltop positions in the area.
Three soldiers were wounded in the operation, during which militant positions were shelled with artillery and heavy weaponry, the army said in its communique.
The statement did not name the militants, but most are believed to be from the Islamic State group.
They and Nusra Front have been holding around 20 Lebanese soldiers and policemen hostage since August.
The army frequently clashes with the militants in their hideouts near the Syria border.
H.K.
G.K.
06 March 2015, 08:42
98
Too much foreign interference in Lebanon, it's sickening. Now this ongoing religious blood-feud continues with foreigners justifying their acts, shameful.
06 March 2015, 13:09
125
Stay in denial you delusional troll, it wont change anything. The people who matter are very aware of the threat and are taking the necessary measures against it. Long live Lebanon, its people, its army and its resistance.
06 March 2015, 17:53
46
Long live Lebanon and it's original people only...must you play this game movaten?
06 March 2015, 18:48
62
What would you know of Lebanon's "original people" you israeli troll? Is it another zionist theory, like the one that says that Palestine's "original people" are ashkenazis who have no ancestral link to the Levant whatsoever?
06 March 2015, 18:53
46
I'm not talking about Israeli's you tool, what's with your sick obsession to equate me with them when I could care less about them? Especially coming from an Iranian implant, your words mean so much lol, what a joke.
06 March 2015, 18:59
62
I know what you were trying to infer you shill, and was underlining the tendency of your people to re-write history and cherry-pick events to suit your ethnic-cleansing tendencies.
06 March 2015, 19:03
63
Must be your nurse calling you back to your padded cell. Bye Elemental, I'm done wasting time with a prepubescent troll.
06 March 2015, 19:23
24
Sure my Iranian friend, sure. I'm more Lebanese than you'll ever be. By the way didn't you say you were done shlomovaten?
06 March 2015, 10:19
911
Sadly they're too busy defending Bashar to defend their own country.
06 March 2015, 12:10
108
They are the ones fighting them at the Syrian border, alongside the Syrian army. Too bad M14 blocks the LAF from cooperating with the Syrians. It will be much harder for the LAF then.
06 March 2015, 10:08
118
The Yazidis and Assyrians etc. What did they do beides being recognized as infidels by Nusra & IS? They didn't bear arms.
06 March 2015, 18:45
52
Only from you and your friends, I only need one account to blast you goofs
06 March 2015, 19:00
52
Oh I can fail in many aspects, but doing your head in is not one of them.
06 March 2015, 10:14
810
The world is moving forward and Lebanon backwards. Thanks to whom?
06 March 2015, 11:22
58
the more terrorists the better spring time our LAF will decimate them and will teach the rest of the so called free world how to exterminate such filth
god bless democracy
06 March 2015, 15:45
63
Again, at the risk of becoming + oua nabka + 's most thumbs up commentator, I agree! Except democracy has nothing to do with it! God bless Lebanon! The Arab world does not deserve or are they entitle to democracy! They need what they need... And that is not the same as what Lebanon deserves! These terrorists that are destroying the levant deserve nothing but their submission to the reality that they had it very good and could have made it even better if they only reacted and protested peacefully with dignity!
History is full of examples of that type of triumph!
06 March 2015, 11:29
812
bless anyone person, entity, organization, brigade or country that inflicts pain and suffering, death, torture, and destruction upon the iranian sectarian terrorist militia and its members, supporters or followers wherever they may be.
06 March 2015, 12:29
511
Thank you @speakfreely, we will for sure take your valuable military input into consideration when we formulate our strategy. Keep them ideas coming
06 March 2015, 13:02
104
As much as i dislike hezbs arogance and negligence of state authority, or their 1 sided suporters who put hezb ahead of lebanon, who believe that hezb are always right, clearly i would at this. Point say they are part of the reason we have not been invaded by these crazy bunch of primitive assassins...
06 March 2015, 14:02
31
Those fighters were pushed here by the syrian regime during the qalamoun 1 & 2 battles when it opened safe corridors for them to withdraw towards the lebanese border instead of finishing them off. Tragically the pretend lebanese group so called hezb allah helpthe regime do that, puting lebanon in danger.
06 March 2015, 16:53
72
invented rhetoric based on nothing but speculation. If the SAA had the means to finish off rebels and takfiris at will, it would have done so in every areas of syria, from south to north and east.
06 March 2015, 14:06
35
May the Lebanese Army crush every single bone of these dirts called IS, Al Nusra and every other evil terrorist group. Let the army never relent in its fight against these evil sobs, let it pound them to dust. There should be NO mercy of any kind shown to IS or their supporters, let the army continue its offensive and never relent, an advancing does not pause nor does it negotiate, just obliterate these filths.
06 March 2015, 15:52
53
Agreed brother but an an advancing Lebanese army must respect and protect the local Lebanese population. Even the Lebanese traitors deserve a civilised and constitutional punishment. The non Lebanese are foreign enemies and deserve to be crushed!
06 March 2015, 18:23
42
Yes I agree too with you Phoenix on this comment above, but I can not accept when you are too close to the Western agendas regarding the Resistance, that is something that drift us apart directly. You should know, that the West and Israel used your people blood to fight the Palestinians instead of them, and you fell right into their trap.
The day you people cut all ties with the West, and realize that your roots are Eastern, and not from Mcdonalds, then I am sure we will agree upon alot more.
06 March 2015, 19:03
22
Ya habibi ya Mystic, thanks for the explanation. But you said something about cutting ties with the West, ya khaye, ya habibi I certainly am no dualist in anything I do or say, and I am sure that I also speak for many in this forum. Trust me khaye, cutting ties at this time is no wisdom, Iran who used to call the West and Amreeka the big evil is today doing all it can to rekindle ties with them all. Look at how Obama's policies are butt-heading with Netanyahu's and you will see that finally common sense has a way to prevail. So how can I cut my ties with the West when Iran, Hezbollah's and Bachar El Assad's cash assets plus other assets are located in the West's biggest banks? I need something more forthcoming ya Mystic, not just slogans, even Iran will be upset at you doing such things nowadays.
06 March 2015, 19:45
51
Phoenix, I thought you knew better. Do you really believe the Nuclear talks, changes anything? You really believe the U.S will abandon Israel, in favor of Iran? Now that is naive thinking again, my friend.
U.S will do all in their power to defend Israeli interests. Just like they used the LF, to massacre Israels enemies the palestinians.
Iran, will never let the West have the same influence in Iran, as they did under the Shah. Those times are over, and I wish Lebanon will follow the same way, not becoming and Islamic Republic, but atleast become and Anti Western one. I know you do not like that, but i like that Idea, and i think it will solve all problems.
You say Resistance should disband, I say let M14 disband and it will bring fortunes to all Lebanon if they do.
06 March 2015, 14:35
105
No patriotic lebanese can tolerate this hostile presence on our borders. Have you already forgotten that they attacked the army and ISF in arsal? Have you forgotten the hostages, the beheadings? The threats and demands to liberate islamists from Lebanese prisons? The repeated attacks on border towns including Ras Baalbek? Maybe you can forget that easily because you're not Lebanese, but we didnt.
Also "Syria destroyed Lebanon more than Israel" is an outright lie, a baseless propaganda line attempting to belittle the magnitude of the repeated israeli aggressions on Lebanon. The 82 events alone, with the destruction of half of Beirut and use of white phosphorus on the civilian population is already several times more than everything Syria ever did altogether. And 82 is just one of many, spreading over decades and decades, and while Syria has done some good to compensate the bad, israel never did.
06 March 2015, 15:08
46
any chance of you to start thinking about getting a life? maybe in Syria?
06 March 2015, 15:37
46
The Butcher killed and assassinated much more people ( his own!) than Israel did.
Of course Syria destroyed Lebanon and continues to do so. Everyone who lived in a Christian area knows very well the extent of the destructions undertaken by the barbarians.
06 March 2015, 15:39
22
PB, sorry with all my respects to your views, this time I must disagree partly with your post where you said and I quote, "nobody claimed they were planning to invade Lebanon. they're just busy controlling Syria", unquote. No PB, they are truing to invade Lebanon as witnessed on their attack on Arsal last August and their consequent attacks on other parts of Lebanon too. If these gutter rats of IS and Al Nusra had one miserable bit of a chance, they would overrun Lebanon in one go and they'd care less who stands on their way. There are times when people like Mystic, Mowaten and Southern say things that are true. I wouldn't trust one bit anything called IS.
06 March 2015, 18:58
31
T'as raison PB et j'accorde a votre opinion un grand respect qui d'ailleurs je trouve toujours tres valable dans toutes les discussion. Merci encore.
