Three suspects arrested for being involved in Arsal attack against LAF

Sources told LBCI that two men were arrested on Thursday for suspicion of being involved in an assault against a Lebanese Army checkpoint in Arsal.   

In the evening the sources reported that a third man was arrested on charges of being involved in the attack.           

Three Lebanese Armed Forces' soldiers were killed on Tuesday May 28th, after unknown assailants opened fire at them at 3 am dawn in the region of Wadi Hmeid on the outskirts of Arsal, northeastern Lebanon.           

The LAF took airtight measures in the region in order to identify the assailants who escaped towards the Syrian territories.             

The soldiers who were killed in Arsal were identified as: Ali Monzer, Mustafa Hayek and Mohamad Sharaf Eddine, and were taken to Beirut's military hospital.             

The Lebanese Army had set up a security cordon on Wednesday night around Farhat Hospital in Jeb Jennin, following reports stating that an injured Free Syrian Army soldier who is being treated there is suspected to be involved in the attack.                 

Later the army removed the cordon after the investigations revealed that the injured soldier has been at the hospital for one week, before the incident.                               

President Michel Sleiman visited the area and the scene of the crime yesterday where he reiterated his support for the institution calling on it to "strike with an iron fist" all those who perpetrate attacks against the military.                 

President Sleiman served as Army Command Chief between 1998 and 2008 prior to his appointment as president of the republic.