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Lebanese army confirms agreement reached on Arsal ceasefire, updates

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Lebanese army - arsalBEIRUT – The Lebanese army on Tuesday agreed to a 24-hour humanitarian ceasefire starting at 7 p.m. in Arsal that calls for militants to withdraw from the eastern Beqaa town and release the security force members they had kidnapped, according to a report by NOW news.

NOW added that Lebanese Armed Forces chief General Jean Kahwaji informed Prime Minister Tammam Salam during a security meeting that the military approved the 24-hour ceasefire mediated by the Muslim Scholars Committee, during which humanitarian aid will be brought into Arsal and injured people will be evacuated, Lebanon’s state National News Agency reported.

Kahwaji also said that “after the ceasefire is stabilized, all LAF and security forces detainees will be released and militants will withdraw from Arsal.”

Kahwaji further vowed that “the army will remain on full alert, and will not tolerate any breach by the militants.”

Earlier in the day, clashes outside Arsal between the LAF and Islamist militants intensified along the heights overlooking the Wadi Ata area near the border with Syria.

The fighting, described by Lebanon’s state-run National News agency as the most violent , spread to the nearby areas of Ras As-Sarj and Wadi Hmayed, where heavy and medium weapons were used.

Meanwhile, armed Syrian Islamists in Arsal released three abducted Internal Security Forces members earlier in the day, with the NNA reporting that Rami Jamal, Khaled Solh, and Tanios Mourad were taken to the army intelligence center in the nearby town of Ras Baalbek.

Fighting between Islamic militants and the LAF entered its fourth day in the Beqaa town of Arsal, leaving at least 14 soldiers dead in the clashes that erupted Saturday after the arrest of Al-Nusra Front commander Imad Jumaa.

The clashes come amid renewed fighting in the Qalamoun border region, where Hezbollah fighters and Syrian regime forces are locked in a fierce battle with rebels.

NOW

Update: MTV reported that the gunmen in Arsal violated the truce and intermittent clashes renewed in Wadi Ata.

Al-Mayadeen TV also reported that the gunmen in Arsal violated the truce and attacked military posts in Wadi al-Raayan and they fired gunshots towards the entrance of Arsal and prevented dozens of civilians and wounded from leaving the city.

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7 responses to “Lebanese army confirms agreement reached on Arsal ceasefire, updates”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    “injured people will be evacuated” … this is a sort of ‘one up’ on Hezzy and Assad … but why not ALL citizens who are not fighting? Nevertheless, perhaps they can pull it off better than Israel does, since the ‘Muslim Scholars’ are ‘in like Flynn’.
    ‘Updates’ indicates the same problems Israel has with ‘rule-breakers’.
    One hopes there are not more ‘end-runs’ into Tripoli, of course.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      And as we figured … an UpDate … 3 hrs into the Truce … anxious bastards.
      “ARSAL, Lebanon: A temporary cease-fire in Arsal was shattered late Tuesday night after two Army posts on hills overlooking the Bekaa town came under fire by militants, putting the truce attempts in jeopardy, security sources said.
      As The Daily Star went to press, clashes raged in the border town after militants targeted the Army posts. Soldiers opened fire on routes used by the gunmen to access the embattled town, the sources said.”

      “Still, the armed groups were split over attempts to end the fighting. While some groups wanted to leave Arsal and move to the outskirts, others insisted on staying to continue fighting the Army, the source said.
      Sunni sheikhs (Muslim Scholars, I guess) with the committee informed the Army that their mission had been delayed after their convoy was attacked Monday evening, wounding three preachers.”

  2. sweetvirgo Avatar
    sweetvirgo

    Kahwaji also said that “after the ceasefire is stabilized, all LAF and security forces detainees will be released and militants will withdraw from Arsal.”

    So they are going to withdraw so innocently?? They won’t fight in Arsal again?? Bull khara. Why should they be shown any mercy. Do we even know if the detainee’s are alive? Shoot them like the dogs they are. They didn’t show the 14 soliders any mercy.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      My guess … it is a ‘test’. The Army doesn’t want to look ‘unfair’ or ‘uncognizant’ of the plight of refugees and citizens who wanted no part of a conflict but ended up stuck in the middle of it anyway, simply by the crazy circumstances that surround them and the fact they hoped to return at some point to their destroyed villages in Syria. There is a small chance that the ISIS-styled idiots will back down for that little bit of humanitarian approach to the thing, and also see it as their chance to ‘regroup’ – after which there can be a huge conflagration they wish to make since supposedly Hezzys are picking at their asses from the Syrian side.
      ONE chance ….
      Otherwise Arsal becomes a dust-pile like the towns the refugees left behind.
      The LAF cannot afford to be trying the ‘mediator game’ the UN plays … it is too close to home … actually, over the doorstep.

      1. sweetvirgo Avatar
        sweetvirgo

        I know you’re right but like you said they (IS) is going to regroup just so they can be stronger. The sad part is they are a little bit stronger. Look how long it’s taking Assad to fight them? Is it because they are too many….they have more ammo? Can Lebanon fight them?

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar
          5thDrawer

          The French at Dien Bien Fu finally put up a white flag because the little buggers kept coming over the piles of bodies, and they ran out of bullets and had to ‘go to the bayonet’, as they say in military lingo. I’m not sure how many of these crazy fu..ers there are … seems no-one is.
          Just hope the supplies last.
          And once the Army begins shooting, they shouldn’t stop.

  3. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Other Updates …

    DAMASCUS: The Al-Qaeda splinter group ISIS executed seven members of a single family from the Ismaili minority in the central Syrian province of Hama overnight, state media and a monitor said Monday.
    “An armed terrorist group committed a massacre in the Mzeiraa area near the town of Salamiya, killing seven people, including two aged 13 and 15 years old,” state news agency SANA said.
    The agency added that four other people had been injured.
    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, also reported the deaths, saying the seven belonged to the Ismaili religious minority.
    The group said some of them had been shot dead and others killed with knives, adding that the jihadists had also fired on homes in the area with artillery.

    Meanwhile in Mosul, Iraq
    “We were shocked by the distribution of a statement by ISIS calling on Christians to convert to Islam, or to pay unspecified tribute, or to leave their city and their homes taking only their clothes and no luggage, and that their homes would then belong to ISIS,” Sako said.
    The threat was relayed in a letter distributed after Friday prayers, and states that the move was taken because representatives of the city’s dwindling Christian community failed to attend a meeting called by the Al-Qaeda splinter group.
    The city was overrun last month by ISIS militants, spearheading a broader Sunni militant offensive, forcing thousands of residents to flee. Many of an estimated several thousand Christian residents of Mosul left the city as part of the exodus.

    In Arsal:
    Makram Malaeb, head of the Social Affairs Ministry’s Refugee Unit, told The Daily Star that about 508 Lebanese families had been displaced from Arsal, while around 32,000 Lebanese and 50,000 Syrians remain in the town.
    He said that most have fled to areas in the Bekaa Valley, primarily Fakiha and Al-Qaa, using Labweh primarily as a passage point. A few have arrived to Beirut.
    Thousands of refugees streamed from Arsal Monday morning during a three-hour truce.

    —————
    Maybe the French can make a delivery in 24 hrs ….

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