Army in Security, Military Operations in Arsal, Outskirts

Army intelligence agents have arrested a Syrian man in the restive northeastern border town of Arsal on charges of belonging to the extremist Islamic State group, state-run National News Agency said on Sunday.

Army troops meanwhile fired heavy artillery and rockets at suspicious movements by the militants of the Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front in Wadi al-Kheil and Khirbet Younin in Arsal's outskirts, NNA said.

Several militants were wounded as a number of their vehicles and heavy-caliber machineguns were destroyed and flames could be seen engulfing one of the militant vehicles, the agency added.

The sounds of shelling were echoing across the northern Bekaa region, it said.

The army has been bombarding the militant groups in the outskirts of Arsal and the nearby towns of al-Qaa and Ras Baalbek for several days now.

Troops have been on high alert since the unprecedented suicide bombings that hit the Christian border town of al-Qaa in late June.

Militants from IS and al-Nusra are entrenched in rugged areas along the undemarcated Lebanese-Syrian border and the army regularly shells their posts while Hizbullah and the Syrian army have engaged in clashes with them on the Syrian side of the border.

The two groups briefly overran the town of Arsal in August 2014 before being ousted by the army after days of deadly battles.

The retreating militants abducted more than 30 troops and policemen of whom four have been executed and nine remain in the captivity of the IS group.