The army on Wednesday arrested fourteen Syrian men in the northeastern town of Arsal on charges of possessing military equipment and entering Lebanon illegally.
“Fourteen Syrians were arrested at army checkpoints in Arsal today on charges of possessing military equipment and entering Lebanese territory illegally with fake IDs carrying Lebanese names,” state-run National News Agency reported.
They were handed over to the Military Police in Ras Baalbek for further investigations, according to NNA.
The arrests come after the army intensified its security measures in the wake of a suicide bombing that killed three of its soldiers in Arsal’s outskirts.
The Lebanese Armed Forces shot three members of the jihadist group Al-Nusra Front at a closed checkpoint in the Wadi Hmeid area between the Syrian border and the eastern Beqaa town of Arsal, killing one and injuring the other two.
The three Syrian men – identified as Ziad Issa, Eyad Samra and Ibrahim Hisyan –attempted to drive through the checkpoint on a motorcycle without obeying orders to stop, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.
An exchange of fire between the three men and the LAF led to the death of Issa and the injury of Samra and Hisyan.
Following the incident, all three were transferred to Universal Hospital in Ras Baalbek.
Also in recent days, the Internal Security Forces seized several stolen cars in the town, some of them at refugee camps.
Naharnet
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