Investigation launched with Arsal’s mayor on Labweh ambush incident

Security members from the Arsal police station conducted an interrogation with the town’s mayor Ali Hjairy and his bodyguards regarding the case of the al-Labweh ambush, upon the request of the general prosecution.

On Sunday 11th of August, Lebanese citizen Mohammad Hassan Hjairi, aka Doukhan, was killed and each of Ahmad Khaled Hjairi, aka Qatshe, and Ali Fliti, aka Ali al-Zahwi, as well as the mayor of Arsal Ali Hjairi, were injured in an ambush in the al-Labweh region following the exchange of detained citizen Youssef Mokdad with other kidnapped persons from Arsal.

In this regard, sources told LBCI that following the exchange of Youssef Mokdad at the Intelligence Bureau in Ras Baalbek with 13 kidnapped persons from Arsal, the convoy of the Arsal delegation comprised of up of 10 vehicles was ambushed by gunmen on the Al-Labweh, Nabi Othman road.

The sources added to LBCI that the armed group that carried out the ambush kidnapped the Syrian national Mohammad Abbas. Tribal ties run deep in the Bekaa, and violence can quickly escalate.

 Such incidents worsened since Syria's crisis began in March 2011 with Shiite Muslims supporting President Bashar Assad's regime while Sunnis mainly back the uprising.