The Lebanese army said on Friday it had arrested a leading local ISIS group commander and 10 other members in a special operation on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal.

The army said special forces from the intelligence and other troops carried out the dawn attack on an ISIS base in the mountainous area of Wadi al-Araneb on the border with Syria.

“They clashed with (ISIS) militants with different weapons and managed to break into the headquarters where they captured 11 of them, including the dangerous terrorist and ISIS emir (leader) of Arsal, Ahmed Youssef Amoun,” said the army in a communique.

According to the military, Amoun was seriously wounded in the operation, and a medical source told Agence France Presse he had been transferred to a hospital in Beirut for emergency treatment.

The communique said the ISIS commander was involved in preparing car bombs used in attacks in various parts of Lebanon, including the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold for the so-called Hezbollah.

It also accused him of involvement in attacks on military posts during bloody gunbattles in the region in August 2014 when ISIS and al-Nusra Front briefly overran the town of Arsal.

As the jihadists withdrew, they abducted 30 soldiers and policemen, five of whom were subsequently executed.

The 16 hostages held by Al-Nusra were released in December 2015 after lengthy negotiations, but there has been no progress on the release of the nine held by ISIS.

Hezbollah has sent fighters to Syria to bolster the regime of Bashar al-Assad against rebels seeking to topple him.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for several explosions in Lebanon over the past two years that killed scores.