New clashes break out in Lebanese border town

Fighting erupted today in a Lebanese border town held by Islamic extremists from neighboring Syria after a negotiated truce collapsed overnight, even as Muslim clerics launched new efforts to broker another cease-fire in what has been the most serious spillover from Syria's civil war.
Lebanon's former prime minister, meanwhile, announced that Saudi Arabia is granting USD 1 billion in aid to the Lebanese army to support its fight against militants.
The initial truce, brokered yesterday, was meant to end days of fighting in the eastern town of Arsal and allow for negotiations for the release of captive Lebanese soldiers.
Clashes broke out again after Syrian militants in Arsal opened fire on Lebanese troops early today and then spread through several fronts across the predominantly Sunni town, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.

Later in the morning, a delegation of Sunni clerics entered the town to try to mediate another ceasefire, said Sheik Raed Hleihel from the Association of Muslim Scholars and a Syrian activist who uses the name Ahmad Alqusair. The two were not part of the delegation today but were in Arsal for previous negotiations.
Fighting in Arsal first began on Saturday when militants from Syria overran the town, which lies near the border with Syria. They seized Lebanese army positions and captured a number of soldiers and policemen, demanding the release of a prominent Syrian rebel commander, Imad Ahmad Jomaa, who was arrested in Lebanon earlier on Saturday.

So far, 17 Lebanese troops have been killed and at least 22 soldiers and an unknown number of policemen have been declared as missing in the Arsal fighting. Tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians and Syrian refugees have been trapped by the fighting.
The capture of Arsal was the first time in Syria's conflict, now in its fourth year, that rebels seeking the overthrow of President Bashar Assad carried out a large-scale incursion into Lebanon, raising concerns that the tiny country is being further sucked into its larger neighbor's bloodletting.
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, on a visit to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, announced that the kingdom was providing the Lebanese army with USD 1 billion in aid.