Free Republic

ISIS has announced that Lebanon will be the next state to fall under the sway of its “caliphate.” According to Beirut's Daily Star newspaper, the only reason ISIS hasn't attacked yet in force is because they haven't decided on the mission's commander. The Lebanese army is one of the least effective in the Middle East—and that's saying something in a region where the far more capable Syrian and Iraqi armies are utterly failing to safeguard what should be their own sovereign territory. So France is going to send a three billion dollar package of weapons to Lebanon and the Saudis...

The Islamic State (IS), formerly known as ISIS, has launched an initiative to conquer land in Lebanon, even though the terrorist group does not have a strong presence there. The Lebanese army continues to fight after IS captured its first portion of Lebanese land, border town Arsal, on Sunday. Four civilians are dead. Soldiers surrounded the town of 40,000 residents and continue to shell it in an effort to liberate the people from IS. Residents have fled, but the people stuck in the middle are the refugees who fled Syria during the civil war. The United Nations said that “[M]ore...

Lebanese army soldiers outside Arsal near the Syrian border in Lebanon, Monday, Aug. 4, 2014 Presented by Militants associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) captured the Lebanese city of Arsal in fighting that began on Friday and continued Monday.  According to The Telegraph, a Syrian rebel group set up check-points in the border city but have not yet declared the area as part of the caliphate. In addition to 40,000 residents, there are roughly 120,000 refugees living in Arsal.  The conflict broke out after the Lebanese Army arrested Abu Ahmad al-Jumaa, a former commander in the Free Syrian Army who later declared...