Alwaght-Lebanese forces have killed Nayef al-Shaalan a top ISIS Takfiri terrorist group commander or emir in Arsal barrens.
Shaalan, who is also known as Abou Fouz, was killed in an early Thursday morning raid by the army in the Wadi al-Hosn area. The Lebanese army intelligence had monitored and identified the whereabouts of Shaalan prior to the attack.
An army statement later confirmed the incident, adding that Ahmad Mroueh, who was accompanying Shaalan, was also killed in the clash which broke out during the raid. The statement added that another ISIS terrorist identified as Mohammed Mossali was also arrested.
Al-Jadeed TV reported that Shaalan had turned his residence in Arsal to an ISIS military operations room, and that him and his affiliates were behind the many killings which the town witnessed in the past several months.
Lebanese troops frequently launch preemptive strikes against ISIS and the Al-Qaeda affiliated Nusra Front, who are entrenched on the outskirts of Arsal near the tense border area with Syria. The bombardment is to keep the militants at bay.
Lebanon has been suffering the brunt of the spillover of the conflict in neighboring Syria where foreign-backed terrorists have been fighting government forces since 2011.
ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front have been active on the outskirts of Arsal.
The town was briefly overrun by extremists in August 2014, when ISIS and Nusra militants captured a number of Lebanese soldiers and policemen, in the worst spillover of the Syrian war to date. It is believed that nine soldiers are still being held captive by ISIS.
The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah is also involved in operations against ISIS terrorists both inside Lebanon and across the border in Syria.
