5 Lebanese troops killed in clashes with terrorist gunmen

The Lebanese army said on Friday that an officer and four soldiers were killed during the clashes on the outskirts of the eastern border town of Ras Baalbeck.

In a statement by the Guidance Directorate, the army said that "a terrorist group attacked Friday morning a surveillance center of the LAF in Talet el Hamra on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek, on the Lebanese-Syrian border."

It said that the attack was in response to the army's operation last Wednesday night against a group of infiltrating militants near Wadi Homeid checkpoint in Arsal, in which four militants were killed, as well as a foiled attempt by militants to smuggle a booby-trapped car into Lebanon on Thursday.

The Lebanese army has tightened its grip on Talet el Hamra and ousted the terrorists after killing and injuring many of them, though a number of soldiers were also martyred and injured, the statement added.

Earlier on Friday, an army post in the barren lands of Ras Baalbeck came under attack by a terrorist group. The National News Agency said an army officer and four soldiers were killed during the clashes.

Tallat al-Hamra is a strategic point that oversees the outskirts of Arsal, a town that was the scene of fierce clashes with fundamentalists.

Since August 2014, the army has been engaging almost on a daily basis with fundamentalist gunmen who overran the border town of Arsal.

During their withdrawal to Syria, the gunmen abducted at least 35 soldiers and policemen as hostages. Later the al-Nusra Front executed three soldiers, while the Islamic State militants beheaded another one. Endit