Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said on Wednesday on the last leg of his tour to West Africa that the Lebanese officials …

  BEIRUT: From Mexican actress Salma Hayek, to Lebanese-Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira, to Anglo-Lebanese vocalist MIKA, a slew of artists have achieved international …

By Laila Bassam and Sylvia Westall

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Lebanese army detained a wife and daughter of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as they crossed from Syria nine days ago, security officials said on Tuesday, in a move seen as likely to put pressure on the Islamist chief.

The woman was identified as Saja al-Dulaimi, an Iraqi, by a Lebanese security official and a senior political source.

The Lebanese newspaper As-Safir reported she had been detained in coordination with "foreign intelligence".

A Lebanese security source said the arrest was “a powerful card to apply pressure” in negotiations to secure the release of 27 members of the Lebanese security forces captured by Islamic militants - a view shared by other Lebanese officials who confirmed the arrest.

However, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed any suggestion that Washington might also try to use similar tactics to free prisoners. "We do not engage in that type of negotiation. Period," he told a news conference in Brussels.

Conflicting Report from Iraq:

By Avaneesh Pandey

Who Is Saja Abdul al-Dulaimi? Confusion Prevails Over Identity Of Woman Detained By Lebanese Military

In a statement released by the Iraqi interior ministry, a government spokesperson said that the woman who was reportedly detained by Lebanese security forces about 10 days ago, is the sister of Omar Abdul Hamid al-Dulaimi -- an Iraqi national who has been sentenced to death on a number of terror related charges.

“The wives of the terrorist al-Baghdadi are Asmaa Fawzi Mohammed al-Dulaimi and Esraa Rajab Mahel al-Qaisi,” the Iraqi government spokesperson said, in the statement. “There is no wife named of Saja al-Dulaimi.”

The statement contradicted earlier media reports, which suggested that the woman was possibly one of al-Baghdadi’s wives or one of his ex-wives.

Meanwhile, CNN contested the Iraqi government’s statement on Wednesday, citing “regional sources” to report that the woman is in fact one of his two wives. The report also claimed that al-Dulaimi is a “powerful figure” within the Islamic State group and is “very active” within the organization. Some other reports claim al-Baghdadi has three wives.

The mother of Mohammed Suleiman, one of at least six Lebanese soldiers who was killed during an ambush by gunmen in Ras Baalbek, carries her son's military clothes during his funeral in Jabal Mohsen, Tripoli December 3, 2014.

Lebanese military soldiers man a checkpoint, near the site of an ambush where gunmen killed at least six Lebanese soldiers, in the mountainous border town of Ras Baalbek December 3, 2014

Friends and family members carry the coffin of Mohammed Suleiman, one of at least six Lebanese soldiers who was killed during an ambush by gunmen in Ras Baalbek, during his funeral in Jabal Mohsen, Tripoli December 3, 2014

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Gunmen killed at least six Lebanese soldiers when they attacked an army patrol near the border with Syria on Tuesday, the army and a Lebanese security source said.

The source said the gunmen crossed from Syria to the mountainous border town of Ras Baalbek after dark and ambushed the patrol. Clashes between gunmen and a special army unit erupted after the attack and the army was able to retrieve the bodies of six of its soldiers.

"Six bodies just arrived at the local hospital of the town of Ras Baalbek," he told Reuters.

The army said in a statement that a "terrorist" group had attacked a patrol on a surveillance mission and killed six of the soldiers. The army had sent immediate reinforcement to the area and "took appropriate field procedures".