Report: Government Mulling to Ask for Anti-IS Coalition Support
The Lebanese government is mulling to ask the anti-Islamic State coalition to expand its operations to the Lebanese-Syrian border area from where extremists are carrying out attacks on the Lebanese army, a report said Friday.
High-ranking political sources told the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah newspaper that the cabinet is studying to officially ask the coalition to carry out air raids on the IS and al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front militants.
The threat of the extremists first came to Lebanon in August when they overran the northeastern border town of Arsal and took hostage Lebanese soldiers and policemen during deadly clashes with the army.
Last week, the international coalition promised stronger efforts to stop the jihadists and squash the spread of their extremist ideology at an anti-IS coalition meeting in London.
The U.S.-led coalition was established in September in Jeddah at a meeting led by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to fight the IS, which controls a large swath of Syria and Iraq.
On Tuesday, Labor Minister Sejaan Qazzi called on the coalition to defend Lebanon if it was invaded by terrorists.
Qazzi told An Nahar daily that the Lebanese authorities should officially ask the coalition to make a pledge on protecting Lebanon against terrorist organizations.
According to al-Seyassah's sources, the control of terrorists on the major part of the border with Lebanon, pushed cabinet members to study the request for the coalition to assist the Lebanese army against the rising threat of extremists.
The Lebanese authorities are concerned about the attacks that the IS and al-Nusra Front fighters are carrying out on the army along the border, said the sources.
But Lebanese officials are mostly concerned about their plan to incorporate Lebanon into the territories they are holding in Syria and Iraq, they added.
The latest clashes with the Lebanese army took place near the northeastern village of Ras Baalbek last week.
Eight soldiers were killed in the attack, which was the most serious assault since the militants seized the Lebanese servicemen in the August cross-border raid.
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