Related: ISIS Expanding
"Lebanese army agrees to 24-hour truce in town" Associated Press August 06, 2014
BEIRUT — The Lebanese army agreed to a 24-hour cease-fire in a border town held by Islamic extremists from Syria Tuesday to allow for negotiations for the release of captive soldiers and evacuate casualties, a senior Lebanese security official said.
The deal appears to be the fruit of mediation by Muslim clerics to help end four days of fighting in the town of Arsal. Islamic extremists from Syria overran the town on Saturday, seizing Lebanese army positions and capturing a number of soldiers and policemen.
The fighting in Arsal marks the first time that the rebels battling President Bashar Assad have carried out a large-scale incursion into Lebanon, raising fears that the tiny country is being further drawn into its larger neighbor’s bloody civil war. The clashes have killed 17 soldiers and wounded dozens.
In an apparent gesture of good will, militants released three policemen they had been holding captive on Tuesday. The Lebanese security official said the army later agreed to a ‘‘humanitarian’’ 24-hour truce to give way to negotiations for more such actions and to ease the suffering inside the town.
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"Some Syrian militants pull out of Lebanese town" by Diaa Hadid | Associated Press August 07, 2014
BEIRUT — Some Syrian militant fighters have begun withdrawing from the Lebanese town they captured five days earlier as a new 24-hour cease-fire was announced Wednesday, according to the Lebanese army and the Muslims clerics that mediated the deal.
It is not clear how many militants are actually leaving the border town of Arsal and previous cease-fires have collapsed, but three more captured Lebanese soldiers were released as part of the agreement, according to the mediators in a televised press conference.
‘‘Most of the gunmen have begun moving toward Syria,’’ said Sheik Hussam al-Ghali, a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, which brokered the cease-fire in what has been the most serious spillover to date from Syria’s civil war.
Lebanon’s former prime minister, meanwhile, announced that Saudi Arabia is granting another $1 billion in aid to the Lebanese army.
Fighting in Arsal first began Saturday when militants from Syria overran the town, which lies near the border with Syria. They seized Lebanese army positions and captured a number of soldiers and policemen, demanding the release of a prominent Syrian rebel commander, Imad Ahmad Jomaa, who was arrested in Lebanon earlier that day.
At least 17 Lebanese soldiers have been killed and another 22 — as well as an unknown number of policemen — have been declared missing. Tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians and Syrian refugees have been trapped by the fighting, and mediators have been trying to work out an arrangement to evacuate wounded civilians from the town.
An initial truce was brokered Tuesday, but clashes broke out again after the militants opened fire on Lebanese troops the next morning and the delegation of Sunni clerics had to return to the town to mediate a new cease-fire.
A senior Lebanese security official confirmed that the three soldiers were released and said the army has agreed to a new cease-fire to allow for more negotiations and for aid to enter Arsal.
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"Syrian rebels pull out of Lebanon" by Fadi Tawil | Associated Press August 08, 2014
LABWEH, Lebanon — Militants from Syria who overran a Lebanese town mostly withdrew back across the hills separating the two countries as a cease-fire appeared to hold Thursday, allowing Lebanese troops to free seven fellow soldiers and ambulances to evacuate dozens of casualties.
The seizure of Arsal over the weekend marked the first time that Islamic extremists from Syria carried out a large-scale incursion into Lebanon and raised fears of a further spillover of the war across the porous border.
A senior Lebanese security official said the majority of the fighters had withdrawn by mid-Thursday.
As the militants pulled back, the extent of the fighting that began Saturday became clearer. Sunni clerics who negotiated the cease-fire uploaded videos of wounded, wailing children and photographs of dead children.
‘‘We were weeping to see people in need. We had some bread, and people were fighting for the bread,’’ said Sheik Hussam al-Ghali of the Association of Muslim Clerics, who oversaw the negotiations. ‘‘I went to some of the [Syrian refugee] camps. The stench of death was very strong.’’
Red Cross official Abdullah Zogheib said the group evacuated 42 wounded people Thursday.
The fighting in Arsal began Saturday when militants, including fighters from the Islamic State group, seized Lebanese army posts and demanded the release of a detained rebel commander.
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I wonder where ISIS will show up next?
