Lebanese forces begin offensive against militants

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s U.S.-backed army on Saturday opened its biggest military operation yet against Islamic State militants who in 2014 gained a foothold along the tiny Mediterranean country’s border with Syria.

The long-awaited campaign aims to defeat the group in its border enclave and put an end to a terror threat that has loomed over Lebanon.

On the first day of the drive, the army said it captured 12 square miles of terrrain and killed 20 Islamic State militants. It said 10 Lebanese soldiers were wounded.

Simultaneously, the Syrian army and its ally, the Lebanese Hezbollah group, are pushing to clear militants from the Syrian side of the border, in the western Qalamoun mountain range. Hezbollah has been fighting alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces in Syria since 2013.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun called field commanders from the Defense Ministry where he was monitoring operations to tell them, “You will not disappoint us,” according to broadcasters.

Operations commenced before dawn, with the military striking Islamic State positions in the eastern border areas with Syria, Brig. Gen. Ali Qanso said at the Defense Ministry, warning of a difficult battle ahead.

The barren hills in eastern Lebanon will leave infantry exposed to snipers, and the militants are expected to mine the area on a vast scale.

According to Central Military Media, an outlet run jointly by Hezbollah and the Syrian army, a group of Islamic State militants, including a self-styled “emir” or local commander, surrendered to the advancing Hezbollah and Syrian forces by midday in the Qalamoun region in Syria.

Qanso insisted the Lebanese army was not coordinating its moves with Assad’s forces or the Hezbollah fighters — a potential embarrassment for Washington, should its ally the Lebanese military be working closely with a group that the United States has classifies as a terror organization. The U.S. is a key patron of the Lebanese army.