by english.aawsat.com, The Lebanese army intelligence on Saturday killed an ISIS leader and arrested ten terrorists after they came over the northeastern border from Syria, the military and the state-run National News Agency said. “An army unit carried out a swift raid at dawn today in Arsal, resulting in the arrest of 10 dangerous terrorists who had previously infiltrated it,” a communique issued by the military general command said. No army personnel were reported injured or killed in the raid in the area of Wadi al-Hosn that lies on the outskirts of Arsal which militants briefly overran in 2014. According to NNA, the special operation carried out by the army at dawn Saturday left a Syrian ISIS commander dead. The agency identified the militant as Alaa al-Halabi.

He is one of the terrorists who issued a fatwa to execute several Lebanese servicemen who were kidnapped when militants from ISIS and formerly known al-Nusra Front overran Arsal in August 2014, NNA said. Al-Halabi hails from the town of Qara in the Syrian capital’s suburbs near the Lebanese border, the agency added. In December 2015, al-Nusra freed 16 Lebanese soldiers and policemen it had captured in Arsal in a prisoner swap. But the fate of nine other servicemen taken hostage by ISIS remains unknown. The Lebanese army stages regular operations against ISIS and al-Nusra militants in the mountainous region.