Lebanese army busts IS post in raid at border town

A special Lebanese army unit raided a post of the Islamic State (IS) outside the northeastern border town of Arsal on Thursday and arrested several terror suspects.

"An army intelligence patrol attacked an IS post in Arsal's Wadi Ata area where it managed to arrest several very dangerous terrorists," the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

"The detainees were transferred to a military barrack," it added.

According to media reports, the detainees are Lebanese nationals Tareq al-Fliti and Sameh al-Breidi and two Syrians who are yet to be identified. The attack did not incur any casualty.

The detainees were reported involved in taking booby-trapped cars into Lebanon, murdering an army major and a First Sergeant and fighting against the army in Arsal's clashes.

The army engaged in fierce battle with the IS and al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra front militants in August 2014 on the outskirts of Arsal.

Before withdrawing back to Syria, the militants kidnapped 31 servicemen and police officers, and later al-Nusra executed four of them and the IS beheaded another one.

Nine of the servicemen are still detained by the IS.

Militants from the IS and al-Nusra Front are entrenched in rugged areas along the undemarcated Lebanese-Syrian border and the army regularly shells their posts while Hezbollah and the Syrian army have engaged in clashes with them on the Syrian side of the border. Endit