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Lebanese army is ready to confront terrorism and fight Islamic State fighters near border with Syria.
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Defence & Security News - Lebanon
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| Lebanese army is ready to confront terrorism and fight Islamic State fighters near border with Syria. | |||
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The Lebanese army was ready and highly qualified to confront terrorism and would continue its mission regardless of any political interference, Lebanese top army commander said Thursday, March 5, 2015, in a TV interview.
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 A Lebanese army officer from a commandos unit, center, gives orders to his soldiers after they blew up a bomb-packed parked car in a field outside the village of Fakiha, near the Lebanese and Syria border, in northeast Lebanon, Monday, March 17, 2014. |
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"The Lebanese army was forced into the battle to confront terrorism... The army is for all the Lebanese and would never be a side in the political conflict in the country," Lebanese Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji said. "The main issue for the Lebanese army now is to safeguard Lebanon from any kind of sedition and to confront terrorism," the commander stressed. Qahwaji also pointed out that the Lebanese army has received advanced weaponry assistance from the United States, and military aids from Jordan. The Lebanese army is now engaged in a fierce war against fundamentalist from the al-Qaida linked al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State (IS) entrenched on the eastern borders with Syria. Last August, the militants overran the eastern border town of Arsal and were engaged in a five-day clashes with the Lebanese army. Before withdrawing to Syria, the gunmen abducted at least 35 soldiers and policemen, and al-Nusra executed later four soldiers while the IS beheaded another one. Saudi Arabia ordered an immediate financial support of four billion U.S. dollars for the Lebanese military and security agencies, and the first shipment of an arms deal with France is expected to arrive in Lebanon early April. |
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