Damascus: Lebanese Gunmen Fired at Fishermen in Syrian Territorial Waters
Syrian authorities confirmed on Saturday that forces detained a Lebanese boat smuggling boxes from northern Lebanon into the territorial waters off the Syrian village of Kherabh.
According to SANA, Lebanese gunmen opened fire at the boat while Syrian authorities were allegedly trying to inquire the members about the cargo on the boat.
“Major Ali Younis, an officer at the Directorate General of Ports, warned the infiltrating boat to stop more than once but the crew didn’t go by the orders and threw the boxes into the sea trying to flee back into northern Lebanon,” the official SANA news agency reported.
Media reports said earlier on Saturday that the Syrian authorities seized a Lebanese fishing boat and kidnapped three men aboard from the town of al-Arida, including a 16-year-old boy who was shot and fatally wounded after gunmen opened fire on them.
Younis said “when we tried asking them for identification papers, 5 other Lebanese boats shot at their fishing boat injuring 2 men onboard the infiltrating fishing boat.”
“We towed the fishing boat to the port of the coastal city of Tartus and transferred the injured men to the hospital, while a third man was handed to the competent authorities,” he told SANA.
Younis noted that “the length of the infiltrating boat was 12 meters and width of about 5 meters.”
Meanwhile, Syrian security forces killed three members of a "terrorist group" overnight as they tried to enter the country from neighboring Lebanon, SANA reported.
"The security forces of Syria clashed overnight on Friday with a terrorist group trying to infiltrate the country across the border with Lebanon in the Tal Kalakh area and killed three of them," the agency said.
President Bashar Assad's regime has been rocked by more than 10 months of deadly dissent in fighting that the United Nations estimates has killed more than 5,400 people.
The authorities in Damascus blame "armed terrorist groups" for the trouble.
Source: Naharnet
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