Delegation of Arsal residents visits Beit al-Wasat

A delegation of Arsal residents visited Beit al-Wasat on Monday evening whereby they met with the General Secretary of the Future Movement Ahmad al-Hariri and MP Nouhad el-Machnouk to discuss the situation in their town.     

On behalf of the delegation, Sheikh Samih Ezzeddine stressed that Arsal residents condemn the attack against the army in all its forms, but at the same time refuse that the army conduct field operations without judicial warrants or a verdict.      

Ezzeddine called for transparent, impartial and public investigations held by the judiciary, not by the military. He also urged the Army Command to explain all of the incident’s circumstances.     

LAF troops were ambushed Friday February 1st, 2013, while trying to detain fugitive, Khaled Hmeid, suspected of involvement in the 2011 kidnapping of seven Estonian tourists.

They were abducted in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley and held for nearly four months before being released in July that year. Some security officials have said that Hmeid crossed the border into Syria over the past months to fight with rebels trying to depose Syrian President Bashar Assad. Many in Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town, are sympathetic to Syrian rebels   

These as fears of a Syrian spillover are mounting in Lebanon.      

LBCI showed photographs Sunday of uniformed soldiers being held in the municipality building in Arsal. Some of the soldiers had bruises, and others were bloody. Some residents in Arsal have said that the troops who were ambushed were in civilian clothes and using civilian cars. They said they believed they were pro-government Syrian militiamen who crossed the border from Syria to capture Hmeid.    

The death of the two soldiers have stirred the emotions of Lebanese Army supporters leading many to cut off roads and burn tires as a reaction to the crimes.