Lebanese policemen stand guard at the entrance of the Environment Ministry where anti-government activists are staging a sit-in inside the ministry, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, in this Sept. 1, 2015 photo.

Eight Lebanese including two soldiers were killed Monday in a dawn shootout between security forces and two fugitives outside a nightclub north of Beirut, the army said.

Mehdi Hussein Zeaiter and Ahmad Ali Ammar fired on an army patrol pursuing them outside a nightclub in the Maameltein area near the coastal city of Jounieh, “which led to the deaths of two soldiers,” an army statement said.

“The patrolling officers returned fire and clashes broke out, resulting in the deaths of Zeaiter and Ahmad Ali Ammar, and four civilians who were also with them,” the army said.

Lebanon’s National News Agency said two young women were among the dead, and that the military police would investigate the incident.

Zeaiter and Ammar had a total of 11 search warrants and six arrest warrants in their names, the army statement said, without specifying the alleged offenses.

The army cordoned off the area and set up checkpoints, inspecting vehicles and preventing traffic and passersby from approaching. Traffic was diverted from the inner routes to the highway due to security measures enforced by the army.

While shootouts occasionally break out between security forces and fugitives in Lebanon’s north and the eastern Bekaa valley, such violence is rare in the capital and surrounding area.

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