Al-Nusra Fires Rockets against Bekaa Targets 'in Response to Tripoli Unrest'

The al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front fired on Sunday a rocket against the eastern Bekaa town of al-Labweh.

It announced via Twitter that the attack was in response to the ongoing unrest in the northern city of Tripoli.

“In support of Tripoli al-Sham, we announce the shelling of a position of Hizbullah in al-Labweh,” it declared in a statement.

Media reports had said that a rocket landed in al-Labweh, while another landed in the Nabi Othman region.

They were fired from the eastern mountain range and the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal.

No one was injured in the attacks.

The clashes in Tripoli erupted on Friday where two civilians and two gunmen were killed and around 20 troops and civilians were wounded.

The fighting is ongoing as the army is pursuing gunmen in the city.

For the past few months, the military has been coming under increasing armed attacks, mainly in northern Lebanon.

Future Television later reported that fierce clashes erupted between the army and al-Nusra Front and Islamic State groups in the Wadi al-Raayan area in the Arsal region.

Later on Sunday, the army raided an apartment in the Ras al-Saraj area in Arsal, arresting five Syrians, said the National News Agency.

Gunmen from the same groups overran Arsal in August where they clashed with the army.

The militants had withdrawn from the area, but they abducted at the time a number of soldiers and policemen.

Three of them were executed, a few were released, while the rest remain held.

Al-Nusra Front has linked the fate of some of the hostages to the developments in Tripoli, demanding that the army “halt it siege of the city.”