LEBANON’S BID TO RID BORDER OF ISIL

Army says there is no link with Hizbollah’s simultaneous operation

The Lebanese army announced yesterday that it had begun operations to drive out the 600 ISIL fighters near the northern towns of Ras Baalbek and Qaa.

And Hizbollah said that it was moving on ISIL from the Syrian side of the border with support from the Syrian army.

The army has officially denied any co-ordination with Hizbollah or the Syrian army for the operation against ISIL but it is still likely the groups are in communication.

“I expect Lebanese armed forces intelligence to maintain contact as needed to make sure that there are no stray rounds heading at the army or towards Syria,” said Aram Nerguizian, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“The army’s US and UK partners are tracking a lot of this and they are confident in light of how the army is conducting itself thus far.”

The offensive had been anticipated since Hizbollah cleared an Al Qaeda-linked group from the mountains around the northern city of Arsal, close to Ras Baalbek and Qaa, late last month.

ISIL and Fatah Tahrir Al Sham – a militant alliance dominated by the Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat Fatah Al Sham – took control of areas around Arsal after briefly overrunning the city in late 2014.

They took more than two dozen hostages from the Lebanese army and local police forces at that time. Nine soldiers are still missing and it is thought that ISIL is holding them, if they are still alive.

“We don’t know anything about them, if they are dead or alive,” said the army spokesman.

The fighting between Hizbollah and Tahrir Al Sham lasted for about a week and ended with negotiations between the two groups that resulted in a deal to would allow more than 7,000 Syrian refugees and fighters to return to Syria.

But the army spokesman said there were no civilians living in the area controlled by ISIL, and that negotiations would not take place with the group.

ISIL also threatened to overrun Ras Baalbek and Qaa in 2014, and claimed responsibility for striking Qaa with bombings last year, which killed five people.

Yesterday, Bashir Matar, a member of the municipal council in Qaa, said residents were happy the operation had finally begun but also wary of retaliation.

“There are fears of bombings and infiltration by militants to carry out operations,” said Mr Matar. “So the eyes will remain

open for the security services, the municipal police and the people.”

The offensive against ISIL is the first real test of strength for the Lebanese army in 10 years. The last one was against militants who had taken refuge in Nahr Al Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

That fight, which began in May 2007, 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 army spokesman said fears of a repeat were unfounded. “Nahr Al Bared was urban fighting, this is a conventional war,” he said.

For the ISIL campaign, the Lebanese army will be backed US-supplied Cessna planes equipped with Hellfire missiles. Lebanon has received US$1 billion (Dh3.67bn) in US military aid since the fighting in Nahr Al Bared, although Hizbollah’s closeness to the Lebanese government has led some US politicians to call for cuts to such assistance.

During the fighting around Arsal, the Lebanese army provided a cordon around Hizbollah’s area of operations to prevent militants from escaping the battlefield and also provided artillery support.

But last week, Lebanon became only the second country in the world to receive delivery of US-made Bradley armoured personnel carriers.

At the time, Mr Nerguizian said that this reflected the level of trust the US has in the Lebanese armed forces.

The army spokesman and Mr Nerguizian said the army could carry out the operation against ISIL without support from the US, although it was still in a position to request it.

Additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press