LEBANESE ARMY HITS ISIL AFTER QAA STRIKE

▶ Pentagon says US special forces present in ‘training and support roles’

The Lebanese army said it hit back at ISIL positions in northern Lebanon after the extremists fired artillery that landed on the outskirts of the northern town of Qaa.

The army has been shelling ISIL positions in the area for weeks in anticipation of a military campaign to dislodge the group from positions it has held since 2014. It said on Monday it had hit back after the extremists fired near to Qaa.

While one local news outlet reported that the Lebanese armed forces had requested US air support for its offensive, a Lebanese military source refuted those claims yesterday. The presence of US special forces in Lebanon received renewed attention this week after a report on Al Hurra, a US-based Arabic television station.

“I can confirm the presence of US special forces in Lebanon,” said Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said. “Our special forces are providing training and support to the Lebanese armed forces. That not only concentrates on operational-type missions, but also tactical and strategic-type missions.

“We also have a presence with Lebanese special forces in all aspects of training and special operations.”

The presence of US forces in Lebanon, however, is not new, and does not mean they would be active participants in an operation against ISIL.

“Their role has always been a training and support role, and it goes back about half a decade,” said Aram Nerguizian, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington.

Whenever it takes place, the military campaign against ISIL will be a test for the Lebanese armed forces, which have not carried out a major combat operation since 2007. The last one was against militants who had taken refuge in Nahr Al Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon. It lasted more than four months, killed more than 168 Lebanese soldiers and more than 200 militants, almost completely destroyed the camp and displaced about 30,000 people.

The campaign against ISIL is not expected to be speedy, unlike Hizbollah’s recent operation against Al Qaeda-linked militants who held positions not far from ISIL’s.

The terrain is “incredibly inhospitable, and they’re going to be doing it without largescale air cover”, Mr Nerguizian said. But, “at the end of the day, Lebanon is a member of the counter-ISIL coalition, and it hasn’t asked for tactical help”.

Hizbollah’s offensive last

month against Al Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate, Jabhat Fatah Al Sham, lasted about a week and ended with a negotiated settlement between the two sides that allowed militants to withdraw to Syria with their families.

“With Fatah Al Sham, you’re fighting a beaten enemy that knows it’s the endgame,” Mr Nerguizian said. “ISIL doesn’t have an exit plan, and they’re not really demographically Syrian.”

Hizbollah has declared it will fight ISIL from the Syrian side of the Lebanese-Syrian border, and is ready to assist the army on the Lebanese side of the border as well.

The proximity of the Lebanese military to Hizbollah has raised concerns – some American politicians argue that arms supplied by the US could end up being used by the Shiite militants against Israel. The US department of defence has sought to assure them that is not the case.

Meanwhile, a US embassy official in Beirut reaffirmed to The National the US’s stance on Hizbollah’s role: “The US has serious concerns about a military operation undertaken inside Lebanon that was not conducted by the Lebanese armed forces, the sole legitimate defender of Lebanon.”

The American presence in Lebanon also received attention in April, when thousands of Syrian refugees living near Riyaq airbase were forced to move to provide a wider security perimeter after the US military increased its use of the base – most likely to provide faster resupply of ammunition to the Lebanese army in northeast Lebanon.

US special forces have also had a presence at the Hamat military base near Batroun, on the coast of Lebanon. That base is home to the Lebanese special forces training facility.

On Monday, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, addressed Hizbollah’s role by calling for improvements to the UN interim force in Lebanon (Unifil), which monitors south Lebanon and the country’s ceasefire with Israel. Unifil’s mandate is up for renewal this month and Ms Haley said more attention needed to be paid to the “illegal presence of armed personnel, weapons, and infrastructure inside Unifil’s area of operations”.

“These arms, which are almost entirely in the hands of Hizbollah terrorists, threaten the security and stability of the region,” Ms Haley said.