Syrian Islamist militants withdrew from a Lebanese border town they seized at the weekend on Thursday, ending five days of deadly fighting but taking with them captured Lebanese soldiers as hostages, according to The Associated Press.
About half a dozen armored personnel carriers mounted with machine guns rolled uphill toward Arsal on Thursday afternoon, though there were no signs of fighting, the AP reported. Ambulances sped away on the main road, where speed bumps had been removed.
Muslim clerics who had been mediating an end to the conflict in Arsal said they would negotiate for the release of remaining captives held by Sunni militants whose incursion marked the most serious spillover of Syria's civil war into Lebanese territory, the AP reported.
Dozens of people were killed in the battle between the army and Islamists from groups including the Islamic State, which has seized large areas of territory in Iraq and Syria, according to the AP.
"The army is in control today, but the danger has not entirely gone, especially given that the terrorists have hostages," said Amin Hteit, a Lebanese military affairs expert and retired army general, the AP reported.
The dead include 17 Lebanese soldiers, and a Syrian doctor in Arsal put the total civilian death toll at 42, while security sources have reported dozens of fatalities among the militants, according to the AP.
Speaking on the road outside Arsal, Abdullah Zogheib of the Lebanese Red Cross said medics had entered the town in the morning and evacuated 42 wounded people, mostly women and children, the AP reported.
"Most of them had very serious wounds. They had been shot by bullets, some in the head, and there were amputees from shell fire," he said, adding the situation in town now seemed "normal" and that people were walking in the streets, according to the AP. "We didn't see any gunmen. We don't know if they were hiding or if they just weren't there."
