In a remote corner of Lebanon near the border with Syria, Lebanese troops have been quietly making steady progress, fighting against Islamic extremists holed up in the rugged mountains.
It is a fight less visible than the US-led war against ISIS in Syria, Iraq and Libya. But hardly a day passes without army artillery stationed on the edge of this eastern Lebanese town pounding nearby militant positions.
Aided directly by the US and Britain – and indirectly by the Syrian army and Hezbollah allies working on the other side of the border – the under-equipped Lebanese military has registered steady successes against ISIS.
In recent months, Lebanese armed forces have clawed back significant territory once held by ISIS and Al Qaida’s branch in Syria, known as the Nusra Front, and have killed and detained hundreds of extremists, forcing many others to flee.
According to the army, the militants still hold about 50 square kilometres of land in the border area, compared with 20 times this size in the months after Syria’s conflict began.
Most of the activity is around the border town of Arsal, which the militants took over in August 2014.
After five days of deadly fighting, the military pushed them out to the town’s outskirts and into the surrounding mountains and has been battling them ever since.
Nearly 5,000 troops are now deployed in and around Arsal. They keep a close eye on any suspicious activity by the extremists who avoid movement during the day.
During a tour, a first lieutenant peered through binoculars toward areas controlled by the ISIS group on the edge of Arsal when he spotted a vehicle moving several miles way.
“It’s the tanker truck,” the officer told some of the troops, referring to an identified vehicle owned by a Lebanese man who has a permit to cross into ISIS-controlled areas.
“Had it been a truck with a machine gun on top of it we would have dealt with it immediately,” said another officer, pointing to two 130mm guns that are always ready to fire.
The Lebanese military, generally seen as a unifying force in a country divided along political and sectarian lines, has received support from the West.
The American Embassy says the US has provided Lebanon more than $1.4 billion in security assistance since 2005.
The stepped-up assistance came after Saudi Arabia announced in February that it was halting deals worth $4 billion aimed at equipping and supporting the Lebanese military.
Syrian forces and Hezbollah fighters have also helped the fight by clearing the militants from areas in Syria across the border from Arsal, hurting supplies for those in Lebanon.
Arsal is home to tens of thousands of refugees and in the early days of the Syrian conflict, became a major crossing point for arms smuggling to help Syrian rebels fighting the regime.
On August 2, 2014, some 2,000 members of ISIS and the Nusra Front overran Lebanese army positions as well as Arsal and captured two-dozen policemen and army soldiers and took them to the fields outside the town. Four troops were killed.
“This [attack] was a turning point and the Lebanese army command decided to put limits on those terrorists and to repel them and prevent any effect they might have on mainland Lebanon,” said Brig. Gen. Mohammed Al Hassan, commander of the 8th Infantry Brigade in the Arsal area.
Since then, the military has slowly recovered all strategic hills overlooking Arsal.
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