Syrian insurgents linked to al-Qaeda attack Hezbollah bases along Lebanese border

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/syrian-insurgents-linked-to-al-qaeda-attack-hezbollah-bases-along-lebanese-border/2014/10/05/251886a6-4cc2-11e4-aa5e-7153e466a02d_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage

Version 0 of 1.

BEIRUT — At least 16 insurgents from al-Qaeda’s Syrian wing, Jabhat al-Nusra, were killed in clashes with the Shiite group Hezbollah in eastern Lebanon on Sunday after launching a major offensive, a person close to Hezbollah said.

Hundreds of the Sunni Muslim insurgents attacked at least 10 Hezbollah bases along a mountainous range close to Lebanon’s border with Syria. Two Hezbollah fighters were killed in the latest spillover of violence from the conflict next door.

“There are at least 16 dead from Nusra Front,” the person close to Hezbollah said, referring to Jabhat al-Nusra by its alternative name, adding that Hezbollah reinforcements from Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa region had joined the battles.

Hezbollah had issued a call Sunday to its fighters to defend the area, the person close to Hezbollah and security officials said. Hezbollah’s al-Manar television reported late Sunday that the group had pushed the insurgents back across the border and that the clashes had ended.

Officials put the death toll at eight and said it was expected to rise. They said fighters from the Islamic State, an extremist group that has seized vast tracts of land in Syria and Iraq, also were involved in the clashes. However, the person close to Hezbollah said that only Jabhat al-Nusra insurgents appeared to have taken part.

Armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, the insurgents attacked a large area of territory stretching from south of the town of Baalbek up to areas close to the border town of Arsal. The Lebanese army stayed out of the clashes, but it also has battled insurgents in the area.

The Sunni insurgents consider Iran-backed Hezbollah among their chief foes. Fighters from the Lebanese group have been aiding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in that country’s civil war, battling militant Islamist groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State.

Violence from Syria has often spread into Arsal and surrounding areas, which are hosting tens of thousands of Syrian refugees.

In August, fighters from the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra stormed Arsal, killing and capturing members of the Lebanese military. They have since killed at least three of the captive soldiers and are holding an unknown number of others.