A military expert was killed and two Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers were wounded on Wednesday while dismantling an explosive device in the mountainous region of Wadi Ain Ata in Arsal.
Earlier, the state-run National News Agency reported that cautious calm prevailed in Ras Baalbek; however, noted that intermittent gunfire by Lebanese Armed Forces was heard at the outskirts of the said area.
Six Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers were killed on Tuesday (December 02) and another was wounded in an ambush on a military patrol in Ras Baalbek’s Tallat Sayl region.
The attack prompted the airborne regiment to intervene.
The LAF soldiers were identified as Sergeant Ali Yazbek, Soldier Moshref Sharafeddine, Soldier Mohammad Ali Sleiman, Soldier Ali Mohammad, Soldier Rabij Al-Hoda, and Soldier Mohammad Slaim.
In August, militant groups seized some 20 Lebanese soldiers and police officers during a brief cross-border raid on the Lebanese border town of Arsal. The extremists have already killed three of the captives, beheading two of them.
The plight of the remaining captive soldiers and policemen and their families has gripped Lebanon in the past weeks. Relatives of the hostages are staging an ongoing sit-in and blocking roads in Beirut to pressure the government to negotiate with the militants. To watch Edmond Sassine's report, please click on the video above.