Four soldiers killed in Lebanon ambush

Four Lebanese soldiers were killed in an apparently drugs-related ambush on an army patrol in the east of the country on Monday, a security official said.
The attack occurred in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, a stronghold of the Shia Muslim militant movement Hezbollah, that has also long been known as a fertile drug-producing region.
Fifteen soldiers were also wounded in the attack, the security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Last month, Lebanese troops killed a prominent drugs baron travelling in a stolen car after he refused to stop at an army checkpoint in the Bekaa valley.
The army has often come under attack in the deeply divided country, which has witnessed a spate of killings against prominent anti-Syrian figures in recent years.
An AFP correspondent said the army vehicle was ambushed in Rayak, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of the Bekaa valley's main town of Baalbek, site of a majestic Roman temple complex.
Witnesses said a gang of men opened fire with machine-guns and a rocket-propelled grenade on the vehicle.
In Baalbek itself, friends and relatives of the slain drug baron, Ali Abbas Jaafar, fired celebratory gunshots into the air, an AFP correspondent said.
Ali Abbas Jaafar, who had 172 outstanding arrest warrants against him, was killed in late March along with an aide outside Baalbek.
He was wanted on a variety of charges, including drug trafficking, opening fire on military positions, attempted murder of soldiers and civilians and carrying false documents.
Historically known as Lebanon's breadbasket, the Bekaa Valley was also synonymous with production of illegal drugs, chiefly hashish, during the 1975-1990 civil war.
The multi-billion-dollar industry was halted under pressure from the United States after the civil war, but the number of cannabis plantations has mushroomed over the past two years amid political unrest.
Last September, four soldiers and three civilians were killed when an explosion ripped through a military bus in the northern port city of Tripoli. A similar attack in mid-August killed 14 people, including nine soldiers and a child.