The Lebanese Future movement led by Prime Minister Saad Hariri accused the Assad regime of killing a retired Lebanese soldier who was on a bird-hunting trip and was shot dead at a Syrian military checkpoint in Arsal on the Syrian-Lebanese border on Thursday.
According to a statement by the Future Movement, the Assad regime forces also kidnapped two other men in the incident.
Wissam Youssef Karnabi, Nayef Mahmoud Raed and Hussein Ali Al-Hujairi were partridge hunting with small nets in a security zone surrounding Arsal when the shooting took place. Al-Hujairi is believed to have been shot by Assad regime troops following a dispute at the checkpoint.
The statement said that “the body of Hajiri, which was recovered by the public security on Saturday night, bore signs of torture and beating with a sharp tool on his head. The fate of his two friends remains unknown. We are working with the public security to know their fate, ensure their release, and return them safely to their families and homeland.”
“The incident constituted a grave attack on Arsal and its people who are paying with their blood only because they are Lebanese citizens on Lebanese borders being violated daily by the Assad regime.”
The Future Movement pointed out that the Assad regime’s repeated attacks on Arsal were due to town’s hosting of displaced Syrians fleeing the regime’s brutality since 2011. It called on the Lebanese state to turn again to Arsal highlands and activate the army’s tasks in controlling the border and preventing further violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
On Saturday evening, the Lebanese General Security retrieved the body of Al-Hujairi from Syria. The body was transferred from the Nabek in Syria hospital to the Elias Hrawi hospital in Zahle through the Masnaa border crossing.
The Arsal border area contains camps sheltering tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, mostly from the Syrian region of Qalamoun who fled the regimen’s bombing of their villages and towns in 2011. The Assad regime forces have also repeatedly bombed the Arsal camp since the beginning of the Syrian revolution. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
