Rockets from Syria Hit Hizbullah Stronghold of Baalbek, At Least 1 Wounded
Around 10 rockets and mortar rounds from Syria slammed into the northeastern city of Baalbek on Wednesday night, injuring a Lebanese man and causing material damage, the army command said.
A military communique said Thursday that soldiers inspected the areas where the rockets had fallen and carried out patrols.
The attack was the second largest cross-border salvo to hit the Hizbullah stronghold since Syrian rebels threatened to retaliate for the party's armed support of the Damascus regime.
As Safir daily reported on Thursday that the rockets hit the areas of al-Sharawneh, al-Basatine and Iaat, leaving three children injured, and damaging a house owned by Kamal Ramadan.
Security sources told Agence France Presse that two people were injured in the assault, which came hours after Hizbullah and the Syrian army took control of the central town of Qusayr, located near Lebanon's northeastern border.
The army's 6th battalion transported on Thursday to a secure place a rocket that had landed in Baalbek without exploding, report said. The military's communique did not confirm the reports.
Lebanon has suffered an escalating spillover of Syria's more than two-year conflict and Hizbullah's role in Syria has set off a mounting backlash from the rebels who threatened to target the group's bases in Lebanon if it does not withdraw its fighters.
Last week, around 18 rockets targeted the Baalbek region.
Over the past weeks, Syrian rebels have also fired dozens of rockets on the northeastern region of Hermel, across the border from Qusayr.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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