Director of Intelligence tells LAF's account of Arsal incident

        
The LAF Director of Intelligence Brigadier General Edmond Fadel said that the plan of action in response to the attack on the army in Arsal is being drafted at the moment, vowing that the "army will hunt down" all those involved in the killing of two of its members.                               

In an press conference held on Monday, Fadel described the events leading to the Arsal incident stating that 2 cars belonging to the Directorate of Intelligence, with ten military members on board, including two officers dressed in civilian clothes and eight members in military attire surrounded suspect Khalid Hmeid near his house on the outskirts of Arsal.    
             
Fadel pointed out that Hmeid had been working with the extremist Islamic group known as Jebhat al-Nusra fighting against the regime in Syria. He also played a major role in the kidnapping of seven Estonians in Lebanon last March, and participated in the attack on an internal security forces checkpoint near the Syrian border in November.                         

According to Fadel, Hmeid fired four bullets from his pistol on the patrol, prompting the military personnel to reciprocate and arrest him injured in preparation for his transfer out of town while avoiding entry into Arsal.The accumulation of snow and bad weather hampered the patrols progress, leading to the full on plan out of an ambush, in which some 80 militants were awaiting the military vehicles arrival.                          

The militants captured that military men, taking all the members to the municipal building where they further cut open the wounded and paraded the dead bodies of the Lebanese Army members in celebration.