Hujeiri Says Situation in Arsal 'Calm', Warns of Attempts to Involve Army in New Battles

Head of Arsal Municipality Ali al-Hujeiri described the situation in the northeaster town as “calm,” lashing out at attempts to involve the army in armed clashes by reporting rumors.

“The situation in Arsal is calm and normal, but gunmen remain scattered on the outskirts of the town,” Hujeiri told al-Liwaa newspaper published on Friday.

He considered that there's a scheme to shove the army into gunbattles and destabilize the security in Arsal by spreading rumors.

Hujeiri expressed belief that Syrian gunmen “made a mistake the first time they engaged in battles with the army,” saying: “They will not do the same mistake again.”

An army soldier went missing on Thursday and three others were hurt in fresh clashes with Islamist gunmen in Arsal's outskirts.

Hujeiri denied in remarks to al-Liwaa “suspicious” reports that the army clashed with gunmen in the al-Rahweh area.

“Thursday's clashes occurred from distance and 300 to 500 meters away from army posts,” he noted.

The Municipality chief said that the case of the missing soldier “remains mysterious as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Nusra Front denied their involvement in it.”

“We don't know if he was killed or fled away.”

The military said in a statement that the fighting erupted when an army vehicle with five soldiers on board was ambushed at around 11:00 am.

The army launched a counter-attack in which one of the soldiers was wounded while another went missing, it said.

Arsal lies 12 kilometers from the border with Syria and its inhabitants are overwhelmingly sympathetic to the Sunni-dominated uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and is widely suspected of smuggling weapons and fighters across the border.

However, the residents of the Bekaa town were angered after jihadists from Syria attacked their town earlier in August.

Troops clashed with Syrian rebels in the area on August 2 after the army detained a leading jihadist.

It ended with a truce negotiated by Muslim clerics, but the jihadists withdrew from the area taking 24 policemen and soldiers hostage.

H.K.

G.K.