Three Lebanese soldiers wounded in attack

Three Lebanese soldiers were wounded during a shootout early Tuesday in Baalbek, east Lebanon, after which the gunmen who fired on them took shelter in a resident's house. Security sources told Arabstoday that machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) shattered the dawn's silence in Baalbek's Sharawneh neighbourhood. They said that an army detachment on the hunt for one of Baalbek's most wanted men, Hasan Abbas Jaafar, came under attack. Three soldiers – Ahmad Ali al-Ghoul, Wael Sobhi Milhem and Khaled Hasan Ismail – were wounded by an RPG in the ensuing battle. They were taken to Dar al-Amal hospital near Baalbek for treatment, with Ghoul reportedly in critical condition after a serious injury to his mouth. Milhem was said to be in stable condition after suffering a shoulder injury. Ismail, who was lightly wounded, has been discharged from hospital. Abbas is wanted by Lebanese authorities on dozens of warrants, including for attempted murder of Lebanese Army soldiers, theft and drug trafficking. During military raids in Sharawneh that continued after daybreak, Lebanese troops arrested another wanted man, identified as Abbas Jaafar. Jaafar is wanted on more than 30 warrants, including several for robbery and attacks on Lebanese security forces. During the operation, the Lebanese Army blared announcements through loudspeakers mounted atop their vehicles calling on residents of Sharawneh to vacate the streets. The Lebanese Army said in a communiqué later Tuesday that during the operation to arrest wanted men in Sharawneh, a military unit "came under heavy gunfire from gunmen, some of whom took shelter inside the house of a female lawyer." The statement accused the lawyer – identified only by her initials as LJ – of trying to prevent soldiers from making any arrests and "urging the gunmen to confront the military patrol." The Army confirmed that three soldiers had been wounded, one seriously, in the exchange of gunfire, and that a fugitive had been arrested. The statement said weapons used in the attack on the army patrol had also been confiscated.