U.S. Says World Has Responsibility to Back Lebanon against Jihadists

The U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. has said it was the responsibility of the international community to support Lebanon against Islamic extremists, who last month overran a border town in the northeast.

“It’s our responsibility as an international community to join in solidarity with Lebanon as it now deals with … one of now what are becoming innumerable manifestations of the terror inflicted by ISIL,” Samantha Power, who is the current president of the U.N. Security Council, said.

Fighters from ISIL or what is now known as the Islamic State overran Arsal last month along with militants form al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front.

They engaged in deadly fighting with the Lebanese army and took with them hostages from the military and the Internal Security Forces.

The jihadists beheaded two of their captives and have threatened to kill more.

Power described the beheading as “monstrous and horrific.”

The IS jihadists' “crimes have spread from Syria, in the first instance, into Iraq; and now we are seeing what they are capable of … in Lebanon,” she said.

The ambassador also lauded the Lebanese government for sheltering Syrian refugees who have escaped the fighting between troops loyal to President Bashar Assad and the rebels trying to oust him.

“The fact that the Lebanese people and the Lebanese government have embraced their role as a safe haven for truly vulnerable people who are fleeing either the Assad regime or a terrorist like those from ISIL, I think is a real tribute to the solidarity the Lebanese have shown,” she told the Council.

G.K.

H.K.