Army Advances against IS in Border Battle, Pays Tribute to Spain Victims

W460

Lebanese soldiers renewed fire on Islamic State group positions on the country's eastern border with Syria on Sunday after capturing a third of the territory held by jihadists in the area.

The army began its operation in the mountainous outskirts of Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa early on Saturday, and in the first day captured around 30 square kilometers of territory, a military spokesman said.

"That is around a third of the area controlled by the terrorists," Brigadier General Nazih Jreij said late Saturday.

Jreij said 20 IS fighters had been killed in the clashes, and 10 Lebanese soldiers wounded.

Lebanon's battle against IS comes as the jihadist group faces assaults in both neighboring Syria and Iraq, where the government early Sunday announced an offensive on the group's bastion of Tal Afar.

The attack also comes after IS claimed several international attacks, including twin car ramming incidents in Spain that killed 14 people.

Lebanese soldiers raised the Spanish flag on a hilltop captured from IS on Saturday in a tribute to the victims of those attacks, the army said.

The military estimated around 600 IS fighters were present in the Jurud Ras Baalbek and Jurud al-Qaa areas, controlling around 120 square kilometers of territory before Saturday's advances.

On Sunday, state-run National News Agency reported soldiers were firing heavy artillery and rockets at IS positions in Ras Baalbek's outskirts.

The army's assault comes after Hizbullah waged its own campaign against jihadists operating in another border area south of the current battle.

The group's six-day offensive against al-Qaida's former affiliate in the Jurud Arsal area ended with a ceasefire.

The agreement saw around 8,000 refugees and jihadists transported to a jihadist-held area of northwestern Syria in return for the release of eight captured Hizbullah fighters.

Hizbullah said Saturday it had launched a simultaneous operation against IS from the Syrian side of the border, where the group's fighters are battling alongside President Bashar al-Assad's army against rebels and jihadists.

The Lebanese army has denied any coordination with Hizbullah or the Syrian army.

Hizbullah's War Media outlet said its fighters and the Syrian army had on Saturday "managed to liberate 87 square kilometers of the total area controlled by the Daesh (IS) organization... in western Qalamun region" of Syria.

Security along Lebanon's eastern border with Syria has long been a concern, and in 2014 jihadists invaded the town of Arsal and kidnapped 30 Lebanese soldiers and police.

Four were executed by their captors while a fifth died of his wounds.

Sixteen were released in a prisoner swap in December 2015, but another nine solders are believed to remain in IS hands.

It is not clear if they are alive or not.

Comments 24
Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 18:23

What's sad is you have Iranians here who created Daesh with the help of Bashar and Obama acting again like saints, but cowardly of course using yet again fake accounts. How do they wake up every morning living a lie? Solidarity for Spain is one thing, but bowing down to the opposite side of the ideology coin doesn't work either.

Thumb pinocchio 20 August 2017, 19:10

Hey _mowaten_…you are one man army...in this site so many personnels against you and you never backdown you tweet them back like a birdie on Twitter…I salute your shia iranian spirit.. I luv it.

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:12

Big man coming from another fake Movaten account^ Always playing the victim I see lol. By the way, I'm not Sunni, however your primitive reaction shows me you're far left. How do I know? Easy, you get offended by the truth, so you try to twist things and whine/insult all the way. Keep it up lefty, shows your true colors :)

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:15

Copy/Paste, whine whine whine, refer to the above comment^

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:17

Stop pretending to care rat.

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:18

Refer to above comment Fake Movaten account #91, such a leftist lol.

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:24

Alrighty fake account #91 How can I share responsibility for something that doesn't involve me? Your Iranian regime and Bashar contributed to it's creation, and you got your primitive blood feud fetish satisfied at the same time. And here you go trying to turn the tables, I see you're practicing your takia today, but it's failing much like your fake accounts. Secondly, why should I respond to a coward to creates fake accounts just to harass? Would you like some cheese to go along with your whine? WHo releases these nutjobs from prison during the arab spring? and who gave Malaki his 3rd term, thus making the sunni's in the Iraqi army drop their weapons and walk away, thus letting these weapons fall into the hands of the prisoners Bashar released as a distraction? Cry more lefty ;)

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:25

Besides fake account #91, I'm saying both of your ideologies are equally toxic, but of course that's the truth, so you'll WHINE more like the coward you are.

Thumb ___flamethrower___ 20 August 2017, 19:25

lulz and lol @mowatental

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:26

You played your cards with them ;). Cry more.

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:26

Which you formed, cry more.

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:29

Not a wahabi either my leftist friend, try again when you're done changing your diaper. I shall now refer to you as the gerber baby.

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:32

ok there Gerber baby lol

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:35

Oh you know lefty ;) Cry more.

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:40

Cry more Fake account 91, for someone who assumes he knows everything, you don't even know the Gerber baby? Sad little coward with fake accounts. I see you whine as much as your Antifa buddies out in California, try not to start any fires ok little boy?

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:41

google it lefty, cause that's all I see when you're trying to act like an adult lol. How do you expect to be taken seriously when you create more fake accounts per day than a psych patient?

Thumb im.bassil 20 August 2017, 22:14

A favorite treat yummy yummy

https://image.ibb.co/iqiYgk/Untitled_1.png

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:42

Fake account #92 :D

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:44

You act exactly like them, by the way did you google gerber baby? Cry more.

Thumb ___flamethrower___ 20 August 2017, 19:45

lulz & lol @theresistancemental4.0

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:46

He's still waiting for his welfare check to come in, needs a new mask to cover his face when he goes to riot, rest gets wired to Iran.

Thumb Elemental 20 August 2017, 19:54

Another fake account trying to play the victim? That's the only difference I see, I think you're #93

Thumb liberty 21 August 2017, 03:36

funny this despicable troll mowaten cannot spot the difference when he said the syrian rebels were using children as human shields and what the IDF said about Hamas.

Thumb justin 21 August 2017, 10:33

the_roar must be manning the board this morning and deleting comments;)

I was questioning if the troll was denying that hezbollah was using homes, schools and hospitals to launch rockets at Israel in 2006?