2 Dead, 5 Hurt as Shells from Syria Hit Hermel Towns, Suleiman Condemns Bombardment
Two people were killed and five others were wounded when rockets fired from Syria hit the Bekaa towns of al-Qasr and Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali in the Hermel District on Sunday.
“Ali Hasan Qataya was killed and four people were wounded, one critically, when shells fired from Syria hit the center of the Hermel town of al-Qasr,” said Lebanon's National News Agency.
The Beirut-based, pan-Arab television al-Mayadeen reported a higher casualty toll, saying “two people were killed and at least seven others wounded when rockets fired from the Syrian opposition's positions in Qusayr hit the Bekaa town of al-Qasr."
Later on Sunday, the 13-year-old Abbas Kheireddine was killed and another person was wounded when two rockets fired from Syria hit the Hermel town of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali, NNA said.
LBCI television earlier said “a man from the Qataya family was killed and a man from the Jaafar family was wounded in shelling from Syria on the Bekaa town of al-Qasr.”
"We'll take justice into our own hands should the state fail to act," al-Manar television quoted the municipal chief of al-Qasr.
On Saturday, rockets fired from Syria landed in al-Qasr and Sahlat al-Mayy in al-Hermel, OTV reported, as LBCI said four shells hit al-Qasr.
President Michel Suleiman issued a statement after the incident in al-Qasr, condemning the fire and adding that such spillover "has only led to the deaths of innocent Lebanese who have nothing to do with the ongoing conflict taking place outside their country."
The Lebanese army issued a statement on the cross-border violence. "This afternoon, the border town of al-Qasr in the Hermel border region came under artillery shell fire from Syrian territory, killing one citizen, injuring three others and damaging several homes," said the army's statement.
"Subsequently, army units were deployed widely across the area and took measures in the field necessary to protect people and respond to the source of the attack as appropriate."
However, there was no indication that the Lebanese army was gearing to return fire in response to the latest spillover of the conflict in neighboring Syria, Agence France Presse reported.
The deaths are not the first time that Lebanese citizens have been killed by cross-border fire coming from Syria. In February, at least one Lebanese man was killed by gunfire from the Syrian side of the border.
Since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011, there have been numerous deadly clashes along the northern and eastern borders of Lebanon, usually between the Syrian army and armed Syrian or Lebanese groups backing the uprising.
There have also been clashes between armed groups in Lebanon, mainly in the northern city of Tripoli, and the Lebanese army has been seeking to prevent the infiltration of fighters into Lebanon.
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