Clashes broke out Wednesday between Syrian troops and residents of the border town of Arsal in eastern Lebanon after a Lebanese man was killed and two wounded at dawn, a security source told AFP.

The source said that rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons were fired during the clashes at Khirbet Daoud, an area of Arsal.

The source said the fighting broke out after Syrian security forces intercepted a group of arms smugglers crossing into Syria near the eastern Lebanese town of Arsal in the Bekaa Valley.

There have been regular outbreaks of violence along the poorly demarcated and porous frontier between the two countries.

Damascus says weapons and fighters cross into Syria in support of rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces, while Lebanese residents have accused Syrian soldiers of repeated infiltrations into Lebanon.

A month ago residents and a doctor in the Lebanese town of al-Qaa said Syrian troops killed a 75-year-old woman and wounded her daughter when they fired across the border.

In April a Lebanese television cameraman was killed by gunfire from Syrian troops across the border, and shells have also landed inside Lebanon in the past.