Ceasefire reached in Arsal with Al Nusra

A ceasefire was reached yesterday near the Lebanese border town of Arsal, where Hizbollah has been fighting extremist militants since last week.

The ceasefire took effect at 6am local time after the head of Lebanon’s directorate of general security, Maj Gen Abbas Ibrahim, mediated an agreement between the Shiite group and militants of Jabhat Al Nusra, according to Lebanon’s national news agency.

The report said Gen Ibrahim was scheduled to announce the terms of the agreement “at a later time”, adding that Al Nusra militants and their families will head to Idlib in an area of north-west Syria that is largely under the extremists’ control.

Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday evening the group was close to defeating Al Nusra.

“We are in the face of a very big military victory,” he said, claiming that the Sunni militants had “effectively lost” most of the land they held in the barren, mountainous border region of Jurud Arsal.

Mr Nasrallah said Hizbollah would be willing to hand over territory it had captured if the Lebanese army requested it.

The Lebanese armed forces did not participate in the offensive but established defensive positions around Arsal, which the Hizbollah chief said were essential.

Hizbollah’s militia in Lebanon is considered stronger than the country’s military.

Iran-backed Hizbollah, with the Syrian army, made rapid advances to drive the militants from their last foothold along the frontier.

Mr Nasrallah said Saraya Ahl Al Sham, a Free Syrian Army rebel faction present in the area, pulled its fighters from the front lines early in the offensive.

“We facilitated this,” he said. “We are ready to work with the Lebanese state and the Syrian government on the withdrawal” of the rebel faction to Syria.

The next phase is expected to target a nearby enclave under ISIL control.

Hizbollah has been fighting alongside Syrian president Bashar Al Assad’s forces since the war broke out in 2011.

ISIL and Al Nusra, who are at war in Syria, have been responsible for several bombings in Lebanon since 2013.

About 1.5 million Syrian refugees are in Lebanon, about a quarter of its population. Tens of thousands of these refugees, most in makeshift camps, live in Arsal.

The Lebanese army said it regularly organised operations targeting ISIL and former Al Qaeda-linked militants in the hills near the border. Last month, the military arrested about 400 people when they raided refugee camps in the area after a string of suicide attacks. Four died in army custody.

The army said the men died from “pre-existing conditions”, but, according to a Human Rights Watch report, their bodies bore signs of torture.