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Bomb attack on Lebanese troops

September 19, 2014

A bomb attack has killed two Lebanese soldiers and wounded three near the Syrian border. In August, the area was the scene of a major battle between the Lebanese army and jihadists who had streamed across the border.

https://p.dw.com/p/1DFra
Arsal, Lebanon
Image: AFP/Getty Images

A roadside bomb killed two Lebanese soldiers near the Syrian border on Friday, security sources said. This was the first attack of its kind since Islamist rebel factions from Syria staged a deadly incursion into the area last month. The bomb also wounded three soldiers when it hit a military personnel carrier near the town of Arsal, where the army had battled the rebels, some of them affiliated with the "Islamic State" (IS), for five days in August.

After the battle last month, the rebels took with them about 20 captured Lebanese soldiers and policemen. They have since beheaded two of them.

IS and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's official affiliate in Syria's civil war, continue to hold about 15 soldiers captive. The factions have demanded the release of allies held in a Lebanese jail. On Friday, police arrested three Syrians who entered Lebanon illegally, suspecting a connection to the beheading of one of the soldiers, security officials said.

War without borders

The beheadings outraged many in Lebanon and sparked days of violence against Syrian refugees in the country. Since the abductions, troops have clashed repeatedly with Islamist-affiliated fighters near Arsal.

Arsal - home to a majority Sunni Muslim population that generally backs the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria - has seen frequent spillover from the conflict. Some Sunnis believe that Lebanon's army backs the Shiite Muslim faction Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters into Syria to support Assad's forces against rebels trying to oust him. Additionally, tens of thousands of people fleeing Syria's civil war have taken refuge in Arsal.

The latest attack on the Lebanese soldiers comes as Turkey has opened a border crossing to allow Syrian Kurds to flee the most recent encroachment by IS into their territory, as France has launched airstrikes on the group in Iraq. In Germany, Muslims are holding a series of nationwide protests against IS and other forms of extremism in the name of Islam.

Syrian Kurds flee the "Islamic State" across the Turkish border
Image: Reuters

IS has also beheaded two Americans and a British citizen in recent weeks.

mkg/ksb (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)