Lebanon Starts Offensive on Daesh near Border with Syria

TEHRAN (defapress) – Lebanon's army on Saturday announced the start of a military campaign to clear Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) militants from a remote corner near the frontier with Syria.

News ID: 65650

Date: 19 August 2017 - 14:09

The announcement was made Saturday by the Lebanese commander Joseph Aoun on Twitter, Al-Manar news channel reported.

A Lebanese security source also said that the army was now targeting Daesh positions close to the village of Ras Baalbek in eastern Lebanon with rockets, artillery, and helicopter gunfire.

The military campaign began with an attack on the terrorists’ positions in the Western Qalamoon Jaroud region from the north, south, and east.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun arrived at the Defense Ministry early Saturday to monitor the operation.

Separately, the Lebanese Hezbollah Resistance Movement and the Syrian army announced a simultaneous offensive to clear Daesh militants from the Syrian side of the border, in the western Qalamoun mountain range.

In recent years, terrorists have infiltrated into Lebanon’s border areas from inside Syria.

Some 400 Daesh terrorists are holed up in areas on the Lebanese side of the frontier, while hundreds more are on the Syrian side, according to Lebanon’s Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk.

Last month, Hezbollah concluded a joint counter-terrorism campaign with the Syrian army at Lebanon’s highlands of Arsal.

The militants of the al-Nusra Front group, recently renaming itself Fateh al-Sham, withdrew from Arsal following a series of consecutive defeats that forced them to agree to a ceasefire deal.