Arsal kidnappers break silence, contact Lebanese mediator
After a 36-hour silence following the storming of Roumieh prison, the Arsal terrorists holding Lebanese soldiers resumed contact with the government's mediator.
Al-Monitor witnessed, by sheer coincidence, a phone call between a Lebanese government official and the mediator in contact with terrorist groups in the rugged mountains of Arsal, at the northeastern Lebanese border.
The call was made in the case of Lebanese soldiers who were kidnapped on Aug. 2, 2014. This call came 36 hours after Lebanese Internal Security Forces stormed the Roumieh central prison near Beirut on Jan. 12, to regain control of the cells of the arrested Islamist extremists and separate them from one other.
The operation was carried out after the Lebanese authorities discovered potential connections between those arrested and the suicide bombers who carried out the double attack in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Jan. 10.
The Lebanese official told Al-Monitor, on condition of anonymity, that he and the mediator had not heard from the armed groups since the storming of the prison. The silence was worrying and there was news that they threatened to use the kidnapped soldiers to avenge the prison operation.
