Naharnet Newsdesk - Shootout Flares on Syria's Border Between Lebanese Police, Smugglers

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Shootout Flares on Syria's Border Between Lebanese Police, Smugglers
The Syria-Lebanon border crisis was aggravated Sunday by a gun battle that broke out between Lebanese police and smugglers on the shuttered border with Syria, The Associated Press quoted officials in Beirut as saying.
The flare-up came as stranded cargo trucks on the Lebanese side of the border increased to a distance of 7 kilometers on the third week of a trade war launched by the Assad regime against Lebanon.

The border blockade also was compounded by the arrest of Lebanese fishermen who allegedly strayed into Syrian territorial waters from Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli. Five fishermen were picked by a Syrian navy patrol on Friday and four others on Sunday, The AP reported.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who is expected to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus on an obvious mediation mission Sunday, has called for both sides to maintain good relations.

The shootout took place just outside the Lebanese village of Qaa, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Beirut, in an area where Lebanon's border with Syria is not clearly demarcated. Lebanon recently increased its patrols along the area's mountain trails to curb smuggling.

The smugglers had infiltrated into Lebanon from Syria and were returning with a load of unspecified contraband when they were spotted and fired on by a Lebanese customs patrol, a border policeman said.

One Lebanese officer was slightly wounded and the smugglers crossed back into Syria, the official said.

The Lebanese border policeman also claimed a Syrian border patrol member shot toward Lebanese customs officers. Syrian customs officials declined to comment on the report, saying they had not heard of the border shootout.(Naharnet-AP)

Beirut, 17 Jul 05, 13:32


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