One Dead, Many Hurt in Syria-Linked Clash in Northern Border Towns

A man was killed and several people were wounded in a Syria-related clash between residents from two villages in northern Lebanon on Wednesday, officials told Agence France Presse.

"A man was killed and several injured when men from Sunni-majority Akroum village clashed with the majority Shiite village of Hourani," a security official said on condition of anonymity.

The man killed was from Akroum, and there were injured on both sides.

A local official said the clash broke out when several Syrians from the border town of Qusayr, in the central province of Homs, tried to make an illegal crossing into Lebanon at the village of Hourani.

"This led to intermittent clashes that continued for three hours," said the local official. "The Lebanese army is now patrolling the area."

Lebanon's borders with Syria have seen frequent violence, with regular exchanges of fire in recent weeks, some of them deadly, as well as shelling from Syria into Lebanon, stoking fears of a spillover of the Syrian crisis.

Syrian troops have laid landmines on the border with northern Lebanon, and Syria and Lebanon last month traded accusations of violating each other's territory.

Syrian President Bashar Assad says Lebanon does not do enough to stop "armed terrorists" and weapons from being smuggled across the border.

Last week, President Michel Suleiman accused Damascus of violating Lebanese territory after a house in the eastern Qaa region was hit by a blast and shells fired from Syria hit several villages along the northern border.

The protest was the first of its kind by a Lebanese president since Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon in 2005 after nearly three decades of political and military hegemony over the neighboring country.