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Conflict Incident Report
Suspected killer of Lebanon Army major captured
The Lebanese Army apprehended a man suspected of killing Army Major Pierre Bachaalani in north Lebanon, said the National News Agency.
The Army’s Airborne Regiment conducted a flash operation in the border town of Arsal, through in which they were able to arrest Lebanese Omar Hamid, who is also known as al-Tawmali, and is suspected to have killed Bachaalani in 2013.
In February 2013, a botched Army operation to arrest Khaled Ahmad Hmayyed – who was suspected of having links to the Syrian opposition and groups sympathetic with al-Qaeda – led to deadly clashes that killed two soldiers, Pierre Bachaalani and Ibrahim Zahraman, as well as Hmayyed.
Lebanese troops frequently launch preemptive strikes against ISIS and Nusra Front, who are entrenched on the outskirts of Arsal near the tense border area with Syria. The bombardment is meant to keep the militants at bay.
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.