Islamist militants are active in the area near the Syrian-Lebanese border.

A Lebanese soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in northern Lebanon on Thursday, the National News Agency and a security source said.

A second soldier in the same patrol was wounded in the explosion which took place near the town of Arsal close to the Syrian border, the source said, without giving further details.

The army shelled positions of militants on Arsal’s outskirts after the blast, the source said.

Islamist militants are active in the area near the Syrian-Lebanese border. Fighters from ISIS group and the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front briefly overran Arsal in 2014 before withdrawing after clashes with the army.

Nusra Front freed 16 Lebanese soldiers and policemen in December 2015 in exchange for jailed Islamists. It had captured the soldiers during the Arsal incursion in 2014. ISIS is believed to still be holding nine soldiers it captured.

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