10 Lebanon troops killed in clashes with militants

Ten Lebanese soldiers have been killed and 13 more are missing, possibly being held hostage, as troops battle gunmen near the Syrian border, Lebanon's army chief said on Sunday.

General Jean Kahwaji announced the new toll and the missing troops at a press briefing on the second day of clashes that erupted after soldiers detained a Syrian man accused of belong to a militant group.

"The army has lost 10 martyrs, with 25 more wounded, including four officers, and 13 soldiers are missing, possibly being held prisoner," he said.

Kahwaji warned that the situation in the Arsal region, where the clashes broke out on Saturday afternoon was "extremely dangerous," and described the attack against the army as pre-planned.

The fighting began after troops detained a Syrian named as Imad Ahmed Jumaa, who the army said confessed belonging to Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, Al-Nusra Front.

Gunmen surrounded army checkpoints and opened fire, before storming a police post inside the town of Arsal, where two residents were killed, reportedly as they tried to hold back the militants.

A medical source, meanwhile, said that five Syrian refugee camps were evacuated in the town on the background of the ongoing clashes.

The source noted that the five camps used to accommodate as many as 500 Syrian refugee families.

A sixth camp was totally burned down when a missile fell on it, the source said, noting that the incident had left no human casualties.

He said roads into Arsal had been blocked, which makes it difficult for humanitarian aid to be delivered to hundreds of Syrian refugee families in the town.

He noted that at least 1,200 families are now left without shelter, a number that can even rise in the next few hours.

The violence is the worst to hit the tense border area of Arsal since the outbreak of the conflict in Syria in March 2011.