BEIRUT
Eleven Lebanese army troops were killed on Sunday in clashes with gunmen from Syria in the border town of Arsal, Lebanese security sources and the army said.
Security sources, who asked not to be named, said that three Lebanese soldiers was gunned down by militants in Arsal, only hours after the army said eight troops had been killed in clashes with a militant group in Arsal.
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 1200 families are now left without shelter, a number that can even rise in the next few hours.
The developments came after gunmen said to be rebels from Syria attacked security and army sites in Arsal and abducted a number of citizens and troops in retaliation for the arrest of a rebel leader affiliated with an extremist group fighting in Syria.
Lebanon's army chief sounds alarm after Arsal clashes
Lebanon's Defense Minister Jean Kahwagi warned on Sunday that no place in the country would be immune from terrorism.
"All of Lebanon's territory will not be away from terrorism," Kahwagi told a press conference.
"What happens now can reach any area of the country," he added.
Violent confrontations erupted Saturday between Lebanese army units and militants in Arsal, a town on the borders with Syria.
The clashes left 11 Lebanese troops dead, 26 wounded and 13 more missing.
The fighting came shortly after the Lebanese army declared that it had detained a senior militant leader, who later turned out to be affiliated with militant Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Some reports suggested that the Arsal clashes were instigated by the arrest.
Kahwagi said the outbreak of violence was pre-planned and that the militants had only waited for an appropriate time to execute their plots.
The defense minister called on Lebanese politicians to be aware of plots against Lebanon.
He said any outbreak of violence anywhere in Lebanon would affect the rest of the country.
The minister urged army troops and security agencies to keep their eyes on refugee camps sheltering Syrians least they are infiltrated by terrorists.
"Some people are trying to copycat what happened on the Syrian-Iraqi borders," Kahwagi said.
Vast stretches of land on the border between Iraq and Syria have been overrun by the ISIL.
Having controlled oilfields in the areas it controlled, ISIL, a group of international militants who say they are bent on reviving Islamic rule in the countries of the region, has secured for itself a lavish source of income.
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