"Terrorists in a car opened fire on the guards of an army post in the locality of Arman-Minyeh... Two soldiers were killed, in addition to one terrorist," the army said in a statement.

"The other terrorists fled," the statement said, adding the army had launched an operation to track them down.

The incident comes amid an ongoing operation to locate a cell involved in the recent killing of four soldiers and three other people.

The Lebanese army said on Friday that it had detained a suspect in the killing of the four soldiers in the Hilane-Zgharta area east of the northern port city of Tripoli.