The Lebanese army advanced Thursday on the outskirts of the northeastern villages of Ras Baalbek and Arsal after repelling an attack by jihadist militants against its posts.

The Guidance Directorate said "army units deployed at dawn on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek and fully controlled the heights of Sadr al-Jarash and Harf al-Jarash." The army "inflicted heavy losses among the ranks of the militants, seizing a quantity of heavy and light arms, bombs, ammunition and military equipment."

Three soldiers were slightly wounded when battles renewed with militants on the outskirts of the area, it added.

Various media outlets reported that the army's Airborne Regiment was deployed in the area as the military controlled strategic positions, while the National News Agency (NNA) said that the clashes intensified in early Thursday morning on the Eastern Mountain Range, near Lebanon-Syria border, between the army and Islamist gunmen.

The NNA said that the military targeted the outskirts of Ras Baalbek and Arsal, in particular Tallat al-Hamra and Om Khaled, with heavy and medium artillery, while the military's helicopters and drones accompanied the field operation.

The jihadists remained entrenched on the outskirts of Arsal on the porous Syria-Lebanon border. The mountainous area has long been a smuggling haven, with multiple routes into Syria that have been used to transport weapons and fighters.

The army has been targeting gunmen along the country's eastern border to prevent them from advancing.

In early August 2014, gunmen from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State (IS) group overrun the eastern border town of Arsal and engaged in five-day clashes with the army.

Before the gunmen withdrew to Syria, they abducted at least 35 Lebanese soldiers and policemen. The al-Nusra later executed four of them while the IS beheaded another one. Endit

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