BEIRUT
Lebanese army forces have detained a Daesh leader in eastern Lebanon, a security source has said.
"The army has detained a senior Daesh leader at a checkpoint in Al-Labwa town," the source told Anadolu Agency.
According to the source, the Daesh leader was coming from the eastern Arsal town en route to northern Lebanon.
Daesh has recently overrun vast swathes of territory in both Iraq and Syria.
Lebanon became mired in Syria's civil war in the summer of last year, when Daesh and Al-Nusra Front militant groups, clashed with Lebanese army troops in Arsal.
Seventeen Lebanese troops were killed in the clashes, while a number of others were captured by the two militant groups.
Daesh and Al-Nusra – both bitter enemies of the Syrian regime – say they will release the captured troops when the Lebanese authorities release certain Islamist figures from Lebanese jails.
They also want the Shiite Hezbollah group, which is fighting the Syrian opposition alongside Syria's Assad regime, to pull its troops out of Syria.
