Hezbollah today killed an Al-Qaeda commander and eight of his men in an attack on their convoy along the Lebanese-Israeli border. (File Photo of Al-Qaeda members)
Hezbollah today killed an Al-Qaeda commander and eight of his men in an attack on their convoy along the Lebanese-Israeli border, the Shia movement's media said.
Al-Manar television said the convoy of Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front fighters had been travelling on the outskirts of the restive Lebanese border town of Arsal when Hezbollah struck.
"The resistance (Hezbollah) fighters targeted the convoy of Al-Nusra Front official Abu Firas al-Jubbeh after carefully monitoring its movements," the station said.
Abu Firas and three Islamist fighters were killed immediately and when Al-Nusra militants tried to retrieve the bodies, Hezbollah opened fire anew killing the other five.
Al-Manar broadcast footage of the arid, rocky terrain where the fighters were targeted and said clashes also erupted between the two sides during which automatic weapons and mortar rounds were used.
The station said that the Lebanese army also fired on Al-Nusra positions in the area.
The clashes come just eight days after Al-Nusra freed 16 Lebanese soldiers and police it captured more than a year ago from Arsal.
The swap deal partially ended a long-running hostage crisis, but nine other servicemen taken prisoner at the same time are still held by the ISIS.
Arsal lies along Lebanon's border with Syria and is a Sunni Muslim enclave in mainly Shia eastern Lebanon.
It hosts many Syrian refugees as well as rebel fighters in the surrounding countryside.