Seven Members of One Syrian Family Executed by Jihadists

AFP reports that fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have executed seven members of a single family in Hama province. The family belongs to the small Ismaili minority, a Sunni Muslim offshoot. Four other people were injured.

“An armed terrorist group committed a massacre in the Mzeiraa area near the town of Salmiya, killing seven people, including two aged 13 and 15 years old,” Syrian state news agency SANA said, via the wire.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-backed monitoring group, reported the executions. Some of the family were shot, while others were stabbed. The extremists also fired artillery on area homes.

Thousands Flee as Lebanon Battles Syrian Militants

The AP reports that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) pounded the northern town of Arsal on Monday after it was run over by extremists from Syria, forcing thousands of Lebanese – and Syrian refugees – to flee.

“The civilian exodus came in the early morning hours during a relative lull in fighting and just a few hours later the bombardment around the town of Arsal had reached an intensity of three shells every minute,” the wire writes.

“The fighting is the most serious spillover of violence from Syria’s civil war into Lebanon, compounding fears that tiny Lebanon is fast becoming a new front in its neighbor’s conflict, now in its third year. The government has rushed reinforcements to the scene, including dozens of armored personal carriers and tanks.

“The town of 40,000, whose population has almost tripled because of the presence of Syrian refugees and rebels, is wedged between Syrian government-controlled territory and Lebanese Shiite villages sympathetic to Hezbollah. A senior Lebanese security official said 17 soldiers have been killed in three days of fighting, including two lieutenant colonels, and 13 others were missing. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that many Syrians in Arsal – a temporary home for refugees in eastern Lebanon – are “panicking” because they have nowhere to go. The paper says LAF checkpoints were refusing to let the refugees relocate elsewhere in the country.

“Some residents here are angry with us: they’re refusing to host any of us thinking that we are behind such fighting, as if we were the ones who welcomed the insurgents,” one refugee, who identifies himself as Walid, tells the Times.

Suggested Reads from Our Editorial Team

CNN: Remember Syria? Some Fear World is Losing Interest in Deadly Conflict

U.N. News: U.N. Condemns Fighting in Northeastern Border Town with Syria

Der Spiegel: Monuments Men: The Quest to Save Syria’s History