Army Arrests Head of FSA Command Council in Arsal

The army arrested at a checkpoint in Wadi Hmayed in Arsal, head of the Qalamun front and head of Free Syrian Army command council colonel Abdullah Rifai, while wandering in the outskirts of Arsal, with a fake Lebanese ID.

The National News Agency said that he was arrested, “while he was passing through a checkpoint in a GMC car, and he was undercover with a fake ID.”

The Army: said: “Khaled al-Hujairi and Syrian Abdullah Hussein al-Rifai were arrested in Arsal as the former was smuggling the latter to the outskirts of the town.”

VDL (100.5) said that Rifai, “was arrested at an army checkpoint in Arsal while he was trying to enter Lebanon , with a fake ID.”

"Rifai is one the list of wanted people by the army,” a security source told VDL.

The source also added: “Rifai was accompanied by another person, who was taken to a barracks outside Arsal.”

MTV also said: “Head of the FSA command council Abdullah Rifai was arrested at an army checkpoint in Arsal and he was carrying a fake Lebanese ID.”

In August, violent clashes erupted between the army and extremist groups, that stormed the town of Arsal and withdrew to the outskirts of Arsal, kidnapping a number of army soldiers and policemen, some of whom are still abducted.

Negotiations are being made between the kidnappers, al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State, and the Qatari envoy, who is visiting the outskirts of Arsal every now and then to work on the release of the soldiers.

Knowing that al-Nusra Front has killed soldier Mohammad Hamieh and the Islamic State has executed both soldiers Ali al-Sayed and Abbas Medlej.

The Qatari envoy held recently a list of demands from al-Nusra, one of the demands was the release of some of the Islamists in Roumieh jail and the Syrian jails.

As for the security situation, army troops have been carrying out raids on encampments and Syrian gathering areas in different places around Lebanon, since the outbreak of the clashes in Arsal last August and has intensified it after the clashes in Tripoli and the North erupted against armed groups.

Z.A.