Four Lebanese soldiers killed

The attack occurred in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, a stronghold of the Shiite militant movement Hezbollah that has also long been known as a fertile drug-producing region. One soldier was also wounded in the attack, the security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Both Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and parliament speaker Nabih Berri condemned the incident. Siniora said it underlined "the necessity to apply the rule of law to all citizens across the whole country," and Berri in a statement called it an "attack on national security."

Last month, Lebanese troops killed a prominent drugs baron, Ali Abbas Jaafar, traveling in a stolen car after he refused to stop at an army checkpoint in the Bekaa valley. The army has often been targeted in the deeply divided country.