Rakan al-FakihNidal al-SolhHasan Lakkis| The Daily Star
BEIRUT/BAALBEK: The Lebanese Army took control of a key, strategic hill near Arsal Tuesday, severing the supply lines of militants who continue to hold soldiers and policemen hostage, as the military struggled to bring peace to the Bekaa Valley after tit-for-tat kidnappings linked to the hostage crisis.
As The Daily Star went to press, the Lebanese Army pounded militant encampments in the hillsides of Arsal, near Tilal al-Hosn.
The Army operations came as Prime Minister Tammam Salam met with the families of the hostages and urged unity and self-restraint in the face of civil strife, describing the enemies Lebanon is facing as “vicious monsters.”
Still, signs of a break in the kidnapping cycle emerged late Tuesday with the release of Ayman Sawan, a resident of the town of Saadnayel who was kidnapped Monday after the beheading of an Army hostage.
“The demands of the kidnappers are still unclear until now,” Salam told the delegation of families at the Grand Serail. “They are acting with cunning and are playing on our instincts and political differences to divide our ranks.”
Militants who pledge allegiance to ISIS and the Nusra Front briefly overran the embattled border town of Arsal last month, before withdrawing with at least 29 soldiers and police officers captive. At least 21 troops remain in captivity.
Two soldiers have been beheaded by ISIS, prompting a wave of tit-for-tat kidnappings in the Bekaa Valley with a sectarian bent.
Salam said Qatari-led mediation efforts with the captors of the Army hostages are ongoing.
Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, the general director of General Security, was appointed envoy tasked with the negotiations on behalf of the Lebanese government.
Salam stressed the importance of unity between the Army, the families and the government and called for self-restraint during the crisis.
The premier acknowledged that the attack on Arsal came as a surprise to the government and Army, and said Lebanon was not facing traditional enemies, describing them instead as “vicious monsters without values or religion.”
But in the first signs of an emerging strategy, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said the nation’s top security officials have been tasked with preparing a major plan to bring security and order to the country and, in particular, to Arsal.
The plan will empower the Army to carry out arrests of wanted individuals, whether Lebanese or Syrian, who are suspected of involvement in attacking the military and aiding the kidnapping of soldiers.
Bassil’s announcement came after a meeting that included top security and Cabinet officials.
The Army reinforced its positions around Arsal Tuesday, working to close routes used by militants on the town’s mountainous outskirts for supplies and to bring their wounded into the town for treatment.
The Future Movement’s coordinator in Arsal, Bakr Hujeiri, said the Army had almost completely isolated the town from the surrounding outskirts by taking control of Wadi al-Hosn, the only remaining passage for the militants into the eastern part of the town.
The passage is crucial for providing the militants with supplies ahead of the looming winter months.
But the Army also seized some of the suspects involved in kidnappings that took place during the chaos that engulfed the Bekaa Valley Monday, a source told The Daily Star.
Gunmen who were allegedly involved in the kidnappings clashed with soldiers from the Army on the outskirts of the village of Brital after the Army launched raids in the area.
Four soldiers were wounded during the clashes, while another Army officer incurred serious injuries.
The Army was able to seize some of the suspects.
But the crisis inched closer to a resolution with the release of Sawan, the resident of the town of Saadnayel, who was kidnapped near Brital.
Sawan was taken hostage when four gunmen in a black Jeep Cherokee intercepted him and his brother near the village Monday afternoon, but was released and picked up by the Army. As a reaction to the kidnapping, some men from Saadnayel had kidnapped seven bus drivers passing through the road linking the village to Taalabaya before releasing them.
In parallel to Sawan’s abduction, three people from Arsal were still in the hands of kidnappers, who security sources said belonged to families of Army soldiers kidnapped by ISIS, as a bargaining chip.
Sources in the area told The Daily Star that armed members either belonging to, or close to, the Medlej family were behind the kidnapping of one of the Arsal residents over the weekend. Sgt. Abbas Medlej was the second Lebanese soldier to be slaughtered by ISIS militants in less than two weeks after the killing of 1st Sgt. Ali al-Sayyed.
A security source in the Bekaa Valley said the families of the captured soldiers had nothing to do with the spate of kidnappings.
“Rogue kidnapping gangs have taken advantage of the rising sectarian tensions and the prevailing chaos in the Bekaa to carry out kidnap-for-ransom operations,” the sources told The Daily Star.
He urged Lebanese to rally behind security forces and said the return to tit-for-tat kidnappings and sectarian incitement “is the worst trap.”
Baalbek was calm Tuesday, after a turbulent Monday night where anonymous armed groups had closed off the highway near Baalbek’s southern entrance with vans and large vehicles, inspecting cars and requesting the passengers’ identification cards. Reminiscent of the Civil War days, the actions caused panic among the residents of the area, however the gunmen later evacuated and the road was cleared.
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri called on Lebanon’s Sunnis and Shiites to ward off sectarian strife. “Protecting our country from sliding into strife is in our hands and in the willpower of all of us; from all sects and regions.”
Rival political blocs rushed to back the Army, which led the crackdown on the kidnappers, with Free Patriotic Movement MP Ibrahim Kanaan calling on Parliament to pass a bill funding the military’s modernization effort.
“We must put political matters aside and the main national issue should be fighting takfiri terrorism,” he said.
The Future Movement called on the Lebanese to avoid falling into strife and said the killing of the soldiers ought to bring the Lebanese together.
After its weekly meeting the party said the path forward in the crisis is supporting the Army and Lebanese unity.