A game-changer in eastern Lebanon

[bemildred]

ust before noon on August 2, in the Lebanese border town of Arsal, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) arrested Abu Ahmad al-Jumaa, a Syrian rebel commander who had recently pledged allegiance to the extremist Islamic State group. His arrest sparked a number of clashes in the largely Sunni Bekaa town between his supporters and Lebanese security forces stationed in the area. But Jumaa's story and the significance of the August 2 events have repercussions beyond the small Lebanese town.

Jumaa had been a commander in the Free Syrian Army (FSA), heading up a small rebel group called Liwa Fajr al-Islam. He and his men fought in Qusayr throughout the spring of 2013. When the town fell to Hezbollah fighters and the Syrian regime, he, like many others, headed to Yabroud. Ahmad al-Qusair, a media activist based in the mountainous Qalamoun region, says that Jumaa was known for his manliness and righteousness.

In March, Yabroud fell under the control of the Syrian Arab Army. Jumaa, his family and his fighters moved to the outskirts of Arsal, in the no-man's-land between Lebanon and Syria.

The area has been rife with military activity since Yabroud's takeover. Rebel forces had been fighting Syrian army units, supported by Hezbollah, over individual towns in the Qalamoun region for months. Battles have recently escalated with higher reported death tolls for both sides. Anti-government forces had been using this area, including the Arsal outskirts, to regroup and recuperate between battles.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/08/game-changer-eastern-lebanon-20148319121262426.html

[bemildred]

1. Lebanon's Militant Sunni Sheiks Support Uprising

TRIPOLI, LEBANON —

Clashes are becoming more frequent between the Lebanese army and Syrian insurgents - including jihadists - along the Lebanon-Syria border.

This past weekend, Syrian rebels attacked the border town of Arsal, killing 11 Lebanese soldiers the fighting. Forty rebels also were killed.

Despite the risk that the fighting will drag Lebanon fully into the mayhem of Syria's sectarian civil war, the country's militant Sunni sheikhs said they sympathize with jihadists in Iraq and Syria, including those fighting with al-Qaida-affilated groups.

Sheikh Mohammed Gamil Nizah is a leading Sunni cleric in Lebanon's northern town of Tripoli, where local Sunnis have clashed frequently with the army and Shi'ite Muslims.

http://www.voanews.com/content/lebanons-militant-sunni-sheiks-support-uprising/1971196.html

[bemildred]

2. Thousands flee as Lebanese army battles Syrian militants who crossed border

LABWEH, Lebanon -- Thousands of Lebanese civilians and Syrian refugees crammed into cars and pickup trucks fled a town in eastern Lebanon Monday as troops battled al-Qaida-linked militants from neighbouring Syria who overran the border region in the most serious spillover into Lebanon of the three-year conflict next door.

The fierce fighting in Arsal, now in its third day, has killed 17 Lebanese soldiers and compounded fears that tiny Lebanon is fast becoming a new front in its neighbour's conflict. The government rushed reinforcements to the scene, including dozens of armoured personal carriers, tanks and elite troops, suggesting fighting was about to worsen.

The civilian exodus came in the early morning hours during a relative lull in fighting and just a few hours later the bombardment around the town of Arsal had reached an intensity of three shells every minute.

"We call on the Lebanese army to strike with an iron first," said Mohammed Hojeiri, who fled Arsal with his family packed in an SUV Monday. "Those gunmen are terrorizing civilians."

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/thousands-flee-as-lebanese-army-battles-syrian-militants-who-crossed-border-1.1945216