2 More Rockets Land in Hermel Town as Lebanon Asks for Arab League Assistance
Two more rockets fired from Syria landed on a border town in the Bekaa valley on Monday, prompting President Michel Suleiman to call for a security meeting which sought Arab League assistance in helping Lebanon confront the attacks.
“The safety of any Lebanese citizen is the sole responsibility of the Lebanese state … and any attack on Lebanon no matter from which side it came is rejected,” Caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour said in a statement he read after the security meeting was held at Baabda palace.
“The foreign ministry will make the necessary contacts to avoid the repetition of the Syrian attacks,” he said.
“The army and security forces will take the measures along the border to protect the security of the Lebanese,” he added.
The caretaker minister told reporters that the foreign ministry should make the appropriate documentation and refer a memo to the Arab League to explain the nature of the Syrian cross-border attacks and help Lebanon in stopping them.
His remark came only in response to a question on whether the Lebanese authorities intended to file a complaint with the organization over the repeated violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
“Any assault from whether the Syrian army or other sides is unacceptable and rejected,” he stressed.
The statement said that the conferees also tasked the foreign ministry with calling for an extraordinary U.N. Security Council session to discuss the issue of Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
Media reports said that a rocket landed on Monday morning on the outskirts of Sahlat al-Ma' in the town of al-Qasr that lies in northeast Lebanon's Hermel district.
A second rocket hit al-Qasr at 11:00 am only 40 minutes after the first attack.
No injuries were reported.
But the assault came after two rockets fired from Syria on Sunday exploded in al-Qasr, killing Ali Hasan Qataya. Two more rockets landed in a nearby village of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali, killing 13-year-old Abbas Kheireddine and damaging two homes.
Both victims were laid to rest on Monday amid widespread anger and mourning in Hermel.
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 and the Lebanese army seeking to prevent the infiltration of fighters into Lebanon.
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