North Lebanon Clashes | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon | |||||||
Locations witnessing fighting | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [2] | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Sheikh Khaled Hablas Shadi Mawlawi Osama Mansur Sheikh Bilal Diqmaq [1] [3] [4] | General Jean Kahwaji [1] Walid Salman Samir Mokbel | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
23 killed [5] 259 captured [4] [6] [7] [8] | 11 killed [5] 1 captured [9] | ||||||
8 civilians killed, [5] 150 people on both sides wounded [2] |
The North Lebanon clashes were a conflict that occurred in October 2014, between the Lebanese Army and Islamist militants in the area of North Lebanon, being also part of the Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon.
The clashes were sparked by a successful Internal Security Forces (ISF) cordon-and-search operation, during which explosives, assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades were found in houses located on the Tripoli area. Among the raided houses, one belonged to Khaled al-Daher, a member of the Parliament of Lebanon. Four rifles were confiscated from Daher's property. [10]
On 24 October 2014, the Lebanese army clashed with Islamist militants in the historic center of Tripoli. [9] The fighting erupted when an army patrol came under a hit and run attack, in the Khan al-Askar area of the city. Four soldiers were wounded in the incident. [9]
On 25 October 2014, fighting intensified. At least 11 soldiers, 8 civilians and 22 militants were killed in the battle and 162 militants were arrested. A total of 24 soldiers and civilians were wounded in the fighting. [9] [10] A separate attack occurred in the village of Minieh, in the outskirts of Tripoli. One soldier was killed and two wounded after RPGs were fired at an army vehicle. The Lebanese army responded by firing at rebel positions from helicopters. [6] [9]
On 26 October 2014, four soldiers were killed after an ambush in the town of Dhour Muhammara. One soldier was killed and one was injured in the aftermath of a firefight in the town of Bhannine. Several of the attackers wounded and arrested. The Lebanese army defused three trapped vehicles in front of a school earlier held by the militants. [3]
On 29 October 2014, Lebanese army commander Jean Kahwaji rejected rumors of a secret truce between Islamists and the military. During the day, 71 suspected militants were arrested in the areas of Arsal and the Bekaa Valley. [1] [7]
On 30 October 2014, the Internal Security Forces raided several houses in the Abi Samra neighborhood of Tripoli. Assault rifles, explosives, grenades and other weaponry were confiscated; the weapons belonged to Sheikh Bilal Diqmaq, head of the Iqraa Organization for Social Development. Eight people were arrested in connection with the attacks, and an additional six Syrians were apprehended for lack of identification papers. [4]
On 31 October 2014, six explosive devices were defused near the Rawshani mosque, Tripoli. Two associates of Sheikh Khaled Hablas were arrested in the Zouk al-Habalisa area of Akkar, the army also confiscated weapons and ammunition in the same area. [4] [8]
On 1 November 2014, an army patrol uncovered a large weapons depot, containing 25 assault rifles, grenades and other military equipment in the city of Tripoli. One man was detained, in connection with the discovered weapons. [11]
On 2 November 2014, two men were arrested in Bhannine for carrying out attacks on soldiers; a rocket propelled grenade and military gear were seized. [12]
On 3 November 2014, material damage was caused after three rockets were fired into the Bekaa from the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Seven people were detained in Tripoli on various charges related to the recent clashes in that city. [13] [14] Militants engaged in a firefight with Lebanese border guards in the Arsal region, after failing to enter into Lebanon. [15]
On 4 November 2014, three people were arrested in Tripoli and five in Bhannine in separate operations carried by the Internal Security Forces. [16] [17] The Lebanese army repelled an attack by jihadist militants attempting to cross into Lebanon near the town of Arsal. [18]
On 5 November 2014, seven suspected militants were arrested in the Dinniyeh region, weapons and military equipment were also confiscated. Two militants were detained also detained in the southern port city of Sidon. Four men were detained in the town of Taanayel, Zahlé district, on charges of illegal weapons possession and conspiring to kidnap. [19]
Jund al-Sham is or was the name of multiple Sunni Islamist jihadist militant groups.
The 2007 Lebanon conflict began when fighting broke out between Fatah al-Islam, an Islamist militant organization, and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) on May 20, 2007 in Nahr al-Bared, a UNRWA Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli.
The Arab Democratic Party (ADP) is a Lebanese political party, based in Tripoli, in the North Lebanon Governorate. Its current leader is Rifaat Eid.
The Bab al-Tabbaneh–Jabal Mohsen conflict was a recurring conflict between the Sunni Muslim residents of the Bab-al-Tabbaneh neighbourhood and the Alawite residents of the Jabal Mohsen neighbourhood of Tripoli, Lebanon from 1976 through 2015. Residents of the two neighbourhoods became rivals during the Lebanese Civil War and frequently engaged in violence. Residents were divided along sectarian lines and by their opposition to or support of the Alawite-led Syrian government. Violence flared up during the Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon.
Between 2011 and 2017, fighting from the Syrian civil war spilled over into Lebanon as opponents and supporters of the Syrian Arab Republic traveled to Lebanon to fight and attack each other on Lebanese soil. The Syrian conflict stoked a resurgence of sectarian violence in Lebanon, with many of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims supporting the rebels in Syria, while many of Lebanon's Shi'a Muslims supporting the Ba'athist government of Bashar Al-Assad, whose Alawite minority is usually described as a heterodox offshoot of Shi'ism. Killings, unrest and sectarian kidnappings across Lebanon resulted.
The Lebanese–Syrian border clashes were a series of clashes on the Lebanon–Syria border caused by the ongoing Syrian Civil War.
Ahmed al-Assir is a Lebanese former Sunni Imam of the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque in Sidon. With his increasing involvement in regional politics, especially after the Syrian Civil War, he has become a notorious personality in Lebanon's political landscape, and frequently agitated against Iran and Hezbollah
Operation al-Shabah was launched in May 2013 by the Iraqi Army, with the stated aim of severing contact between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the al-Nusra Front in Syria by clearing militants from the border area with Syria and Jordan.
The June 2013 Sidon clash in June 2013 was part of the Syrian civil war spillover in Lebanon, and involved the Lebanese Army, Hezbollah fighters, and Sunni militants in the city of Sidon, Lebanon. Clashes between the followers of Ahmed al-Assir resulted in the deaths of 18 soldiers, 25–40 al-Assir gunmen, two civilians, and according to some sources, four Hezbollah fighters. The clashes were the deadliest since the Syria-related internal conflict in Lebanon began in 2011.
The Battle of Qalamoun started on 15 November 2013, with air strikes on the town of Qara, in the strategic Qalamoun region, in an attempt by the Syrian Army to cut rebel supply lines to Damascus from Lebanon. The strategic region had been used by rebel forces as a rear base for its operations around the capital Damascus. For its part, government forces had been using the nearby highway to link Damascus with the central Homs province and had multiple weapons depots in the area. The battle was primarily led on the rebel side by the Al-Nusra Front.
Following the outbreak of the protests of Syrian revolution during the Arab Spring in 2011 and the escalation of the ensuing conflict into a full-scale civil war by mid-2012, the Syrian Civil War became a theatre of proxy warfare between various regional powers such as Turkey and Iran. Spillover of the Syrian civil war into the wider region began when the Iraqi insurgent group known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) started intervening in the conflict in 2012.
The Qalamoun offensive (2014) was launched by the Syrian Army, in coordination with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, during the Syrian Civil War against remnant rebel forces following the previous Battle of Qalamoun which resulted in the military securing all of the towns in the region.
On 2 August 2014, after Lebanese security forces arrested an al-Nusra Front commander, fighters from al-Nusra Front and ISIL surrounded Lebanese Army checkpoints in Arsal before attacking them and storming the northeastern town's police station, where they took at least 16 policemen hostage. The militants then proceeded to take control of the town, and captured two soldiers who were freed by the military later in the day. The fighting continued into the next day and left 30 militants, 10 soldiers and two civilians dead. 25 soldiers were wounded and 13 were missing and presumed captured. Two of the missing soldiers were rescued the same day.
From its inception, the Syrian Civil War has produced and inspired a great deal of strife and unrest in the nation of Lebanon. Prior to the Battle of Arsal in August 2014, the Lebanese Army has tried to keep out of it and the violence has been mostly between various factions within the country and overt Syrian involvement has been limited to airstrikes and occasional accidental incursions.
The following lists some remarkable events that happened in 2014 in Lebanon on a monthly basis.
From its inception, the Syrian Civil War has produced and inspired a great deal of strife and unrest in the nation of Lebanon. Prior to the Battle of Arsal in August 2014, the Lebanese Army has tried to keep out of it and the violence has been mostly between various factions within the country and overt Syrian involvement has been limited to airstrikes and occasional accidental incursions. Since then, the Lebanese armed forces have taken a major part in the frey within Lebanon, and there have been jihadist attempts at invasion which have been repulsed by both the Army and Hezbullah.
Evidence of settlement in Tripoli dates back as early as 1400 BCE. Tripoli was originally a Phoenician colony. In the 9th century, the Phoenicians established a trading station in Tripoli and later, under Persian rule, the city became the center of a confederation of the Phoenician city-states of Sidon, Tyre, and Arados Island. Under Hellenistic rule, Tripoli was used as a naval shipyard and the city enjoyed a period of autonomy. It came under Roman rule around 64 BCE. The 551 Beirut earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Byzantine city of Tripoli along with other Mediterranean coastal cities.