"While raiding the house of a wanted terrorist in the Mount Beddawi-Minyeh area, a military intelligence patrol was hit by gunfire and hand grenades," the army said in a statement late Sunday.

"Three soldiers were killed and another was seriously wounded," it added, saying that the army was chasing the perpetrators.

It did not say whether it had arrested the suspect or give any details on his identity.

Local media reports said that the army had been chasing a militant cell known as the Khalid al-Tallawi group, believed to be behind the August 21 murder of two police officers and the son of the mayor of Kaftoun village in north Lebanon.

Police had already arrested a suspect the day after the murders took place, in the Beddawi camp for Palestinian refugees near the northern port city of Tripoli.