BEIRUT Lebanon’s army said it arrested ten suspected members of militant groups on Saturday after they came over the northeastern border from Syria, and a security source said a local Islamic State leader was killed in the same raid.
No army personnel were reported injured or killed in the raid on Arsal, a town which militants briefly overran in 2014. The army says it stages regular operations against Islamic State and former al Qaeda-linked militants in the mountainous region.
“An army unit carried out a swift raid at dawn today in Arsal, resulting in the arrest of 10 dangerous terrorists who had previously infiltrated it,” the military statement said.
A number of attacks in Lebanon in recent years have been linked to the war in Syria, where Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah is fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
(Reporting by Ellen Francis; Editing by Louise Ireland)
