Beirut Islamists who kidnapped at least 35 soldiers and policemen in Arsal demanded the release of twenty men held at Roumieh Prison even as sporadic clashes continued between extremists and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). Meanwhile, and less than 24 hours after his return to Beirut after a three-year-long security-imposed exile, former Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri informed Prime Minister Tammam Salam that he was ready to make a personal donation of 15 million dollars to assist residents who suffered losses in the Sunni town. According to local sources, the funds would be allocated to rebuild houses damaged in the unrest, as well as help various ministries to restore damage on an emergency basis.
Arsal, whose normal population stood around 35,000 individuals, hosted an additional 125-150,000 Syrian refugees whose presence significantly taxed the town’s road system, water and sanitation lines, along with its near primitive electric grid. Although such poor conditions were not limited to Arsal, given that Lebanese politicians neglected to address the entire country’s basic networks, recent clashes between the LAF and extremists left their marks. Arsal, strangulated by hostile neighboring villages that did not even allow the army to circulate freely, paid a heavy price for the negligence of military intelligence officers. In fact, the town was subjugated to intensive fighting after the LAF arrested a prominent Al Nusra Front member, Emad Jomaa—a man with no record in Lebanon—and turned him over to Hezbollah. A week after these latest clashes, the LAF had yet to provide a full list of the killed, wounded, and the kidnapped.
A few days ago, and based on a pledge made by King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Hariri announced that Riyadh allocated a billion dollars to the LAF, ostensibly to help it combat terrorism. His surprise return to Beirut on Friday, in part to help manage the spending of the grant as well as buttress the voice of moderation in a country that embarked on the opposite road, erased some of the popular depression and, at least in the short term, prevented a restart of the civil war.
Notwithstanding this noticeable optimism, as Hariri’s magic smile spread like wildfire, it remained to be determined whether the government could overcome the sequels of the LAF’s latest confrontations. While the overwhelming majority of the Lebanese backed the LAF in its ongoing clashes with extremists, most understood that dealing with the Nusra Front was easier said than done, especially since the group held 35 Lebanese soldiers hostage.
Islamists in Arsal who knew something of the kidnapped soldiers were adamant that real negotiations were under way by the delegation of Muslim Scholars. “It’s very simple, they will get their soldiers in exchange for the Islamist hostages,” one extremist was quoted as saying in local newspapers. Beirut was apparently studying these demands and vetting the list that, reportedly, included Emad Jomaa, although no decisions were announced as Gulf News went to press.
According to the pro-Hezbollah daily Al Safir, which quoted one of the Muslim Scholars, Shaikh Samih Ezzeddine, the estimated 35 kidnapped troops were doing well. They were neither tortured nor harmed, assured the cleric, who continued negotiations all of Saturday. It was unclear where these soldiers were held although most assumed that they probably were in Syria’s Al Qalamoun region. On Friday, a spokesman for the Al Nusra Front announced that the soldiers and policemen enjoyed a “special status that will be revealed later,” which indicated a desire to exchange them.
