The Lebanese army announced Tuesday that it has launched the third phase of a broad offensive to capture areas controlled by the terrorist Islamic State group on the border with Syria.

A bomb exploded early on Monday at the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, breaching a ceasefire agreement reached a day earlier, as clashes resumed between the secular Fatah Movement and members of two small Islamist groups.

The intersection at the vegetable market-al-Tiri in al-Fawqani street witnessed sniper shooting and bomb explosions, added the agency.

The Lebanese army heavily pounded the hideouts of the Islamic State posts for the third day in a row, as it scored advances in the outskirts of Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa, media reports said on Monday.

The troops have intensified their operations primarily following an attempted suicide attack Sunday that aimed to target their positions on Lebanon's eastern border where the battle rages.

Speaker Nabih Berri hailed on Monday the army's endeavors to eliminate the Islamic State group jihadists from Lebanon, praising the military forces as “heroic and patriotic,” al-Joumhouria daily reported.

“Military troops are doing a heroic and patriotic work. They are achieving great accomplishments,” Berri told his visitors said the daily.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hussein Jaberi Ansari held talks Monday in Lebanon with President Michel Aoun and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil after arriving in the country on a two-day official visit.

According to the National News Agency, Aoun stressed to Ansari that “the Lebanese stance is firm in terms of refraining from interfering in the domestic affairs of Arab countries and staying away from external conflicts.”

The Lebanese army pressed its offensive Sunday in the outskirts of the eastern border towns of Ras Baalbek al-Qaa, capturing new hills from the Islamic State group, as three soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion.

Lebanese soldiers renewed fire on Islamic State group positions on the country's eastern border with Syria on Sunday after capturing a third of the territory held by jihadists in the area.

The army began its operation in the mountainous outskirts of Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa early on Saturday, and in the first day captured around 30 square kilometers of territory, a military spokesman said.

The Lebanese army announced Saturday the start of an offensive against the Islamic State (IS) group close to the Syrian border in the east of the country, where jihadists have been operating for several years.

"In the name of Lebanon, in the name of kidnapped Lebanese soldiers, in the name of martyrs of the army, I announce that operation 'Dawn of Outskirts' has started," army chief General Joseph Aoun said, referring to the mountainous outskirts of Arsal border region.

Armed clashes renewed on Saturday in the southern Palestinian Refugee Camp of Ain el-Hilweh, heavy gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades were heard, the National News Agency reported.

The fighting intensified in al-Fawqani street, NNA said.

Lebanon threw its support Saturday behind its army after it launched an offensive to eliminate Islamic State jihadists that have been operating for several years in an area close to the Syrian border in the east of the country.

Lebanese nationals and politicians took to social media in a show of support for the army's mission.