Lebanon: two soldiers killed in terror attack

In a separate incident on Saturday, a Lebanese SWAT team killed several members of an ISIS cell near the Syrian border

Lebanese soldiers carry the flag-draped coffin of their fallen comrade who was killed in an overnight shooting, in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli on September 27, 2020. AFP

Two Lebanese soldiers were killed in the early hours of Sunday morning during a terror attack in north Lebanon, the army said.

At 1am on Sunday, a man riding a scooter named Omar Breiss attempted to force his way into an army station in the northern region of Minieh. The army said soldiers opened fire and killed him, and that hand grenades and an explosive belt were found on his body.

Corporals Muhammad Khaled Al Nashar, 29, and Ahmed Khaled Sakr, 18, died in the shoot-out. Both men were from the northern region of Akkar and were buried on Sunday afternoon.

President Michel Aoun condemned the attack on Sunday morning.

In a separate incident on Saturday, the Internal Security Forces killed members of an ISIS cell led by a Syrian national, identified by his initials, MH, near the remote town of Wadi Khaled on the Syrian border in north-east Lebanon.

Videos shared on social media of the incident show heavy shooting and smoke rising above the countryside.

The ISF previously arrested three members of the ISIS cell that comprises “over 15 people” as part of an investigation into a deadly shoot-out in the region on September 14.

Four soldiers and one of Lebanon’s most-wanted extremists, Khaled Tellawi, were killed during the army raid at his house. A member of an extremist group that had links to ISIS, Tellawi was blamed for an attack last month that killed three men in a northern village.

A SWAT team on Saturday surrounded an isolated house near Wadi Khaled that housed several “terrorists”, said the ISF. The men shot at security forces with “light and medium weapons”. They were all killed in the ensuing shoot-out. Their exact number and nationalities remain unclear but the ISF said that “the intervention is still ongoing and results will be announced shortly”.

In a press release, President Aoun said that the “terrorist group infiltrated the region through the Syrian border.”

The near decade-long civil war in Syria has caused multiple security incidents in the Lebanese border region. In August 2017, the Lebanese army launched an operation to rid the area of various militant groups, including ISIS.