BEIRUT, Dec. 3-- A Lebanese soldier was killed and two others wounded on Wednesday when defusing a bomb on the outskirts of Arsal in northeastern Lebanon, the military said.

The Guidance Directory said in a statement that an army unit found a bomb on Wednesday morning "while combing the area on the outskirts of Arsal."

"A soldier was killed and two others lightly wounded when specialized members approached the bomb to dismantle it," the statement added.

The National News Agency reported that it's the third such attack in the area, which took place between Wadi Ata and Wadi al-Rayaan areas on the outskirts of the northeastern border town.

On Tuesday six soldiers were killed and another one injured when their unit was ambushed in Ras Baalbek near the Syrian border, in what seemed to be retaliation against the reported arrests earlier in Lebanon of a wife and a son of the self-proclaimed Caliph of the Islamic State (IS), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The army has been repelling infiltrations by gunmen who tried to progress into Arsal.

Gunmen from al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and the IS were entrenched on the outskirts of Arsal. After a bloody fighting with the Lebanese army in August, they took at least 28 soldiers and policemen as hostages when they withdrew back to Syria. Al-Nusra later executed two soldiers, while the IS beheaded another one.

Negotiations are still going on between the Lebanese government and the kidnappers for the release of the hostages.

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