Several dead after Syrian warfare spills into Lebanon

Edited by Nelly Tawil

A security source and the state news agency confirms that Lebanon’s northern Bekaa Valley region was disrupted on Monday as conflict between Islamic State and the al Qaeda related Nusra Front spilled into Lebanon’s territory.

Casualties ranged on both sides.

Both the security source and an Islamic State online statement verified that over sixteen Nusra Front members perished and six were taken prisoner during the discord.

Fourteen Islamic State members were also killed.

The source continued to recount the events in further detail stating that the conflict began on Sunday in close proximity to the Syrian town of Jrajeer, which is located in the Qalamoun Mountains near the Syrian-Lebanese border. The fight then continued to spread towards the Lebanese towns of Ras Baalbek and Arsal.

Lebanon’s National News Agency believes that Nusra Front’s aim was to reclaim some of the positions it lost to the Islamic State in previous fights.

This would not be the first time conflict between both parties had crossed Lebanese boarders as the territories are not so clearly defined in the mountain region.

Nusra Front proclaim loyalty to the successors of Osama bin Laden and boasts its power as being one of the two most powerful government forces in Syria alongside the Islamic State. Both groups have been in a state of discord promoted by a power struggle since a split in 2013.