FSA 'Arsal Commander' Shot Dead in Town's Square
Defected Colonel Abdullah Hussein al-Rifai, the so-called leader of the Free Syrian Army in Arsal and its outskirts, was shot dead Friday in the Lebanese border town.
State-run National News Agency said the shooting occurred in the town's square.
Citing official “security reports”, MTV said four unknown gunmen opened fire around 6:00 pm at Rifai's tinted-glass black Kia.
“Rifai received multiple gunshot wounds and was rushed in a critical condition to the Mustafa al-Hujeiri field hospital in the region before succumbing to his wounds,” MTV added.
Arsal lies 12 kilometers from the border with Syria and has been used as a conduit for weapons and rebels to enter Syria, while also serving as a refuge for people fleeing the conflict.
Jihadists from the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front groups, who are entrenched in the outskirts, stormed the town in August 2014 and engaged in deadly battles with the army following the arrest of a top militant.
They withdrew from Arsal at the end of the fighting, but kidnapped a number of troops and policemen. A few have since been released, four were executed, while the rest remain held.
Y.R.
15 August 2015, 00:24
61
A habeele like you do not understand that a weak FSA will mean a stronger Nusra and IS. When you eliminate the moderates, you end up with the radicals. That is a lesson well understood by your regime as it focused on eliminating moderates to give the world a choice between the lesser of two evils.
15 August 2015, 02:02
41
This is not divide and conquer but much worse. It is about eliminating the acceptable so you have to choose between two lousy options. You seem to approve of divide and conquer, the strategy of aggressors and monsters.
15 August 2015, 18:15
21
Or rather the strategy of every successful warring party in history. Kind of like how the FSA was created by Gulf money. Divided, but not conquered yet.
15 August 2015, 19:54
10
FSA was not created by Gulf money. It was mostly the efforts of Syrian soldiers who refused orders to shoot their own people. If anything, the efforts of some Gulf countries have been weak and subject to layers of US vetoes on the kind of weapons they are able to supply the FSA. The FSA was not the result of 'divide and conquer' but the natural consequence of a criminal regime that brutalize the Syrian people. You support that regime and that says it all. Now if you are arguing that for the regime to survive, it needs to practice divide and conquer - I would agree that this only one of the strategies it used.
15 August 2015, 19:54
10
The most dangerous however was to focus on destroying the moderate forces (and indeed assist IS in doing so) in order to present its people, the region and the world with the sick choice: 'We all know we are bad but look at the alternative'. This is not different than what the sycophants of this regime said in 1976 in Lebanon and throughout its history 'Accept the bad to avoid what is worse.' (In 1976, the regime's lap dogs put up this slogan on walls in much of the Koura district) Even it and its supporters could not defend its criminal actions.
15 August 2015, 22:36
01
funny how those self-proclaimed lebanese patriots always cry over dead foreign terrorists... why do you care so much? shouldnt you be all focused on lebanon as you keep pretending?
