The commander of a Free Syrian Army unit that operates in the northeastern Lebanese border town of Arsal and its outskirts was shot dead by unknown gunmen Friday, a security source told The Daily Star.
At 6 p.m. a vehicle with tinted windows and no license plates passed by the town’s center. Two gunmen exited the vehicle and shot FSA commander Abdullah Hussein Rifai in the head.
Rifai was transferred to a field hospital owned by Salafist Arsal Sheikh Mustafa Hujeiri, where he succumbed to his wounds later in the evening. The car carrying the assailants who shot him fled toward Arsal’s outskirts, where militants affiliated with ISIS (Daesh) and the Nusra Front have a strong foothold.
Rifai was detained by the Army last November for trying to sneak into Arsal’s outskirts. The Army at the time said it confiscated a fake Lebanese ID in his possession. Rifai had confessed to belonging to one of Syria’s armed rebel groups.
Rifai, however, was not formally charged. Preliminary interrogations carried out by Military Intelligence revealed that the suspect hadn’t committed any crime on Lebanese territory and did not have the intent to do so, and was subsequently released.
