Beirut: Two Lebanese soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb near the Syrian border yesterday, security sources said, the first such attack since Islamist militants from Syria staged a deadly incursion there last month.
Three soldiers were wounded by the bomb that hit a military personnel carrier near the town of Arsal, where the army battled militants affiliated to Islamic State and other insurgent groups for five days last month.
Following the bombing, soldiers raided houses in the town in search of militants, security sources said. The army later used “heavy weapons” to target militant positions around Arsal, the state news agency reported.
Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town, has become a refuge for tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing the country’s civil war.
Since its August incursion, Islamic State has beheaded two Lebanese soldiers it took captive. Islamic State and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s official affiliate in the Syrian war, are holding at least 15 more Lebanese soldiers captive.
The Sunni militants are demanding the release of Islamists held in a Lebanese jail. The August incursion marked the worst spillover to date of the Syrian civil war into Lebanon.
Earlier yesterday, Lebanese soldiers arrested two Syrians in the Bekaa Valley town of Baalbek who had confessed to belonging to the Nusra Front, security sources said.
Security forces also detained six Syrians in the predominantly Shi’ite town of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon who had confessed to membership of “terrorist groups”, a security official said. One had been found in possession of explosive belts.
Reuters
