BEIRUT, August 6 (RIA Novosti) – Islamist insurgents in Lebanon appear to have split over the breached ceasefire, according to an expert on Jihadist movements, who says some groups would use any pretext to continue fighting.
Clashes between Lebanon’s Army and the Islamist militants in the Lebanese town of Arsal restarted early Wednesday morning in breach of a ceasefire called to end five days of fighting on the Lebanese soil.
“The participation of Jabhatu al-Nusra fighters in the battle occurred without any formal decision by the leadership. This caused confusion among the fighters which was reflected on the ground through the participation of some fighters and non-involvement of others,” Abdallah Ali told RIA Novosti.
According to earlier reports, militants demanded that the authorities free Imad Ahmad Jomaa, a commander in the Syrian rebel forces who was captured at a border checkpoint last Friday.
“Despite the attempts by some sides, and especially the jihadist fractions to picture the arrest of Abu Ahmed Jomaa as the cause for the outbreak of the fighting, it appeared later that Jomaa does not have any special significance to regard his arrest as justification for waging a big battle as this one,” Ali noted.
He added that, "If not for Jomaa arrest, the militants would have brought up any other excuse to initiate the attack”.
Sources on the ground mentioned infightings the militants themselves. Rebels with the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) and the Nusra Front had disagreements about the ceasefire which sparked off a row amid the insurgents.
Local sources have informed RIA Novosti that the fighting restarted on the eastern sides of Arsal, northeast of Beirut. The army appears in control of the rest of the town.
The latest clashes have pushed the Lebanese Army leadership to ask the government to press forward in providing ammunition to battle the insurgents who are equipped with newest western weapons. Saudi Arabia has recently offered to pay France $ 1 billion for arms deliveries for the Lebanese Army.
