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Arsal kidnappers break silence, contact Lebanese mediator

After a 36-hour silence following the storming of Roumieh prison, the Arsal terrorists holding Lebanese soldiers resumed contact with the government's mediator.
A general view shows Roumieh prison, in Roumieh January 12, 2015. Lebanese forces stormed the country's largest prison on Monday where Islamist militants are detained, security sources said, as authorities searched for those behind a double suicide attack at the weekend. Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk headed to Roumieh prison east of Beirut early on Monday and told Reuters the crackdown came after intelligence showed some of the inmates were connected to the bombings, which killed eight. REUTERS/Mohamed A
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Al-Monitor witnessed, by sheer coincidence, a phone call between a Lebanese government official and the mediator in contact with terrorist groups in the rugged mountains of Arsal, at the northeastern Lebanese border.

The call was made in the case of Lebanese soldiers who were kidnapped on Aug. 2, 2014. This call came 36 hours after Lebanese Internal Security Forces stormed the Roumieh central prison near Beirut on Jan. 12, to regain control of the cells of the arrested Islamist extremists and separate them from one other.

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