Future bloc delegation visits northeastern border town of Arsal -...

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A Future bloc delegation comprised of MPs Ziad al-Qadri, Jamal al-Jarrah and Issam Araji arrived on Tuesday morning to the border town of Arsal to inspect the damage left in the wake of battles between extremist forces and the Lebanese Armed Forces.

In this regard, MP A-lQadri stated that the positions voiced by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri since his arrival to Beirut send out an affirmation to the notion of moderation in the face of extremism, stressing that the northeastern border town of Arsal is in the limelight of the country's interest both on the security front and on the political scene.

He also stated that officials will not turn a blind eye to the situation in Arsal, emphasizing that Hariri will follow up on the needs of its citizens.

For his part MP Araji stated that citizens of Arsal voiced their support to the deployment of Lebanese Armed Forces along the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Clashes erupted in Arsal on Saturday (August 01) when Syrian gunmen deployed across the region after the Lebanese Armed Forces arrested Syrian national Imad Ahmad Jomaa at a checkpoint.

The army said 19 soldiers have been killed, with at least 30 other ISF and LAF soldiers missing and 86 injured in the fighting.

On Thursday (August 07), a military source stated that a truce in Arsal appeared to be holding and the situation in the border town was quiet.

The sources said LAF troops were combing the area in eastern Lebanon to see if gunmen were withdrawing under the terms of the truce.

Lebanese security officials say the fighters include members of al Qaeda's Syria branch, the Nusra Front, and an al Qaeda splinter group, the Islamic State, which has seized swathes of land in Syria and Iraq.

The taking of Arsal was the first major incursion into Lebanon by hardline Sunni militants - leading players in Sunni-Shiite violence unfolding across the Levant - which threatens the stability of Lebanon by inflaming its own sectarian tensions.

Arsal is a Sunni Muslim town at the border where tens of thousands of refugees have taken shelter from the war in neighboring Syria. Their refugee camps have been badly damaged in the fighting, Syrian activists have reported.

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