Update: Lebanese army seize strategic border sites from militants

The Lebanese armed forces managed on Friday to take over a number of "strategic sites" in the eastern parts of the border town of Arsal from the hands of fundamentalist militants.

In a statement, the military said the armed forces carried out earlier Friday a swift military operation and managed as a result to achieve complete control over some of the sites that were used by terrorist organizations to infiltrate and attack army posts.

Operatives with Al-Qaida linked al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State militant group are entrenched on the outskirts of the border lines between Syria and Lebanon and particularly in Arsal.

Last August, they overran Arsal and engaged in five-day clashes with the army and abducted at least 35 soldiers and policemen before fleeing.

Also on Friday, visiting Vice-Speaker of the Belgian House Philip Dewinter said Europe and Lebanon are facing a common enemy represented by "the fundamentalist terrorists," the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

According to the NNA, Dewinter said following meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri that "we, in Europe, are also concerned about Syria and Lebanon in face of this phenomenon," adding that they are also victims of the terrorist attacks.

He added that discussion with the speaker also touched on the problem of displaced Syrians.

Dewinter arrived in Lebanon on Thursday after his trip to Syria, where he called for lifting the European boycott against the country and the return of normal diplomatic relations. Endit