Lebanese Army clashes with Syrian militants in Arsal

The Lebanese military has been clashing with militants in the town of Arsal, on the Syrian border, in the fiercest fighting yet to have spilled into Lebanon from Syria's three-year-old civil war.

The BBC reports the violence broke out Saturday, August 2 after Lebanese security forces captured a member of the al-Qaida aligned militant group the al-Nusra Front.

At least 13 Lebanese soldiers have been killed and thousands have fled the city.

Reuters says more than two dozen members of both the Lebanese military and internal police forces have gone missing. They are feared dead or kidnapped.

Some of those fleeing the fighting in Arsal are among the more than one million Syrian refugees in Lebanon who have already had to leave behind everything they had in Syria.

While there have been isolated car bombs throughout Lebanon and the occasional clash between soldiers and militants, this is the most sustained violence to have bled into Lebanon from Syria.

It is believed the violence has its origins in the arrest of al-Nusra Front leader Emad Jumaa at a security checkpoint near the town of Arsal, according to both the BBC and the Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star.

Both Reuters and CNN described the scenes around Arsal. They said the air was choked by thick black smoke, defined by the sounds of of artillery and steady bursts of automatic gunfire that could be heard from positions throughout Arsal.

Citing a military statement, Reuters reports the Lebanese military had some success in Arsal, forcing Nusra fighters from a school they had overrun and used as their base of operations.

The Daily Star reports the military has promised to have total control of the situation within 48 hours. The Star also says that 40 Nusra fighters have been killed in the fighting thus far.