Sunni militants who merged their wars in Syria and Iraq into one massive campaign to create a new Islamic Caliphate have expanded into a third country.  Lebanon mobilized its armed forces to a border town that was targeted by the Islamists over the weekend.

Almost a quarter century after its own highly destructive civil war that ran from 1975-1990, Lebanon has nervously watching the violence over the border in Syria, and occasionally taking some spillover rocket attacks, suicide bombings, and gun battles perpetrated by Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Nusra Front.  But the attack on Arsal is the Sunni hardliners’ first major incursion into Lebanon. 

“The situation is miserable,” said Deputy Mayor Ahmad Flitti of Arsal, a town which hosts thousands of Syrian war refugees.  “Now the shelters are full.  Soon we are going to have shortages in drugs, and hospitals here will not be able to receive more wounded.”

14 Lebanese soldiers are dead, with 22 others missing, and another 86 injured in the fighting.  The fighting erupted shortly after Lebanese security forces arrested an Islamist rebel commander on Friday.