BEIRUT — Some Syrian militant fighters have begun withdrawing from the Lebanese town they captured five days earlier as a new 24-hour cease-fire was announced Wednesday, according to the Lebanese army and the Muslims clerics that mediated the deal.
It is not clear how many militants are actually leaving the border town of Arsal and previous cease-fires have collapsed, but three more captured Lebanese soldiers were released as part of the agreement, according to the mediators in a televised press conference.
‘‘Most of the gunmen have begun moving toward Syria,’’ said Sheik Hussam al-Ghali, a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, which brokered the cease-fire in what has been the most serious spillover to date from Syria’s civil war.
Lebanon’s former prime minister, meanwhile, announced that Saudi Arabia is granting another $1 billion in aid to the Lebanese army.
Fighting in Arsal first began Saturday when militants from Syria overran the town, which lies near the border with Syria. They seized Lebanese army positions and captured a number of soldiers and policemen, demanding the release of a prominent Syrian rebel commander, Imad Ahmad Jomaa, who was arrested in Lebanon earlier that day.
At least 17 Lebanese soldiers have been killed and another 22 — as well as an unknown number of policemen — have been declared missing. Tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians and Syrian refugees have been trapped by the fighting, and mediators have been trying to work out an arrangement to evacuate wounded civilians from the town.
An initial truce was brokered Tuesday, but clashes broke out again after the militants opened fire on Lebanese troops the next morning and the delegation of Sunni clerics had to return to the town to mediate a new cease-fire.
A senior Lebanese security official confirmed that the three soldiers were released and said the army has agreed to a new cease-fire to allow for more negotiations and for aid to enter Arsal.