BEIRUT: A Lebanese soldier was killed Tuesday in a shootout that erupted during a raid on a militant hideout in northern Lebanon, the army said.
The soldier, 32-year-old Mohammad Hussein, was shot dead by a suspected militant during the dawn raid in the town of Bhannine in the northern Akkar region, a military statement said.
Soldiers returned fire, killing suspect Abdel Rahman Ahmad Tamer, described as a member of a "terrorist group" that ambushed an army patrol north of Lebanon's second city Tripoli in October, killing four army officers.
After the raid, the army searched for other suspects in homes and gardens in the area and set up checkpoints, Lebanon's official National News Agency said.
Security agencies have been conducting raids in north Lebanon, particularly in Tripoli and Akkar, in search of suspects who have launched attacks on army units or joined hardline groups fighting in the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
The army raid on Tuesday came hours after unknown assailants killed the brother of the region's main Alawite politician Ali Eid.
Badr Eid, who was in his 60s, was shot as he drove through a Sunni village in the Akkar region, according to a security source in Eid's Arab Democratic Party.
Lebanon has seen a string of clashes and explosions linked to the conflict in Syria.
The Lebanese are divided between those supportive of the Syrian regime and its ally -- Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah -- on one hand, and the Syrian opposition on the other.
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