Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has escalated its military campaign in Lebanon.

Officials said ISIL along with its rival Nusra Front for the Defense of the Levant has been operating squads along the Lebanese border with Syria and attacking Lebanese Army units.

The officials said the squads, usually traveling by motorcycles, arrived to the border for ambushes before fleeing through tunnels under Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

On Sept. 19, two soldiers were killed and three others injured in a suspected ISIL attack on an army vehicle. The Lebanese military said the attack stemmed from a roadside bomb in the northeastern border town of Arsal, captured for several days by ISIL in August 2014.

“Mohammed Hamiyeh [one of the dead soldiers] is the first victim of the stubbornness of the Lebanese army, which has become a puppet in the hands of the Iranian party,” Nusra, referring to Hizbullah, said.

Officials said ISIL squads consisted of Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians and often directed by former army officers from Iraq. They said residents from Arsal were recruited to help locate targets and plan escape routes.

On late Sept. 20, Lebanon reported another Islamist bombing. The official National News Agency said a suicide bomber blew himself up near a Hizbullah checkpoint in Baalbek. Three people were said to have been killed.

“We must be prepared to confront the takfiri forces,” Prime Minister Tamam Salam said.

  Arsal, Bekaa Valley, ISIL motorcycle gangs ambush Lebanese Army units near Syrian border, Nusra Front