The eight soldiers were killed in clashes with gunmen that continued overnight in and around the border town of Arsal, the Lebanese army said on Sunday.

"The army continued its military operations throughout the night and until this morning in the area of Arsal and its environs as it pursued armed groups and clashed with them," an army statement said.

"Eight martyrs from the army fell during these clashes and there were a number of wounded," it added.

The clashes were triggered on Saturday afternoon when soldiers arrested a Syrian man, Emad Jumaa, who allegedly admitted belonging to the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front.

Gunmen responded to the arrest by surrounding army checkpoints in the region, before opening fire on troops and storming a police post in the town of Arsal, security sources said.

Two civilians were reported to have been killed in the fighting in Arsal, while the army said it killed 11 militants.

Sixteen members of the security forces were taken hostage by militants, according to unconfirmed reports by local media.

Perilous situation

The army issued a statement saying it would take decisive action and "would not allow any party to transfer the battle from Syria to its land."

The civil conflict over the border in Syria pits largely Sunni rebels against forces of Syria's President Bashar al Assad, who belongs to the Alawite sect , which follows a branch of Shiite Islam.

Arsal is a predominantly Sunni Muslim town where support for the uprising in Syria is strong. A commentator for the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar, Nabil Boumonsef, described the fighting around Arsal as the "most dangerous development since the eruption of the Syrian crisis" in 2011.

Lebanese Prime Minister Tamman Salam condemned the attack in Arsal as a "flagrant attack on the Lebanese state and the Lebanese armed forces."

Lebanon is itself in a situation of some political instability as it seeks a presidential candidate acceptable to both its main Sunni and Shiite-led factions.

tj/kms (AFP, Reuters)