Fighting erupts on Syria-Lebanon border; Aoun orders army to respond

Lebanese and Syrian armies say they have been communicating to ease the brewing border tensions.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has announced he has ordered the army to respond to skirmishes at the northern and eastern borders with Syria.

According to a statement by the president’s office on Monday, Aoun said Lebanon “would not allow” the clashes along the border to continue.

The violence overnight and into Monday came after skirmishes over the weekend that saw three Syrian soldiers killed. Damascus has blamed the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah for the clashes, and military officials from the two countries are reported to be in communication in a bid to avert the risk of an expansion of the violence.

Syrian state media, quoting unnamed officials, said the Syrian army had shelled “Hezbollah gatherings that killed the Syrian soldiers” along the border overnight.

Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the seizure and killing of the Syrian soldiers.

Senior Hezbollah legislator Hussein Haj Hassan, in an interview with Lebanon’s Al Jadeed TV, accused fighters from the Syrian side of crossing into Lebanese territory and attacking border villages.

In a statement to the official National News Agency, Lebanon’s national army command confirmed the fighting on Monday and said it had sent reinforcements to “control the security situation”.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a United Kingdom-based war monitor, said in unconfirmed reports that Lebanese armed groups were involved in the fighting.

Lebanon’s military said large numbers of Lebanese soldiers have been deployed in the area.

Lebanese media reported low-level fighting at dawn after an attack on a Syrian military vehicle.

Four journalists embedded with the Syrian army were lightly wounded early on Monday when an artillery shell fired from the Lebanese side of the border hit their position. They accused Hezbollah of launching the attack.

Accusations

It has not been confirmed which Lebanese groups are involved in the fighting.

The interim Syrian government accused Hezbollah of crossing into Syria on Saturday, seizing three soldiers and killing them on Lebanese soil.

Violence has recently spiked in the area between the Syrian military and armed Lebanese clans allied with the regime of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Last week, a spasm of violence saw a large death toll among al-Assad loyalists and civilians from the Alawite community inside Syria.

Lebanese media reports said the clans were also involved in the seizure of the Syrian soldiers.

The Lebanese and Syrian armies said they have been communicating with each other to ease the border tensions. The Lebanese military said it delivered the bodies of the three soldiers to Syria.

There were no immediate reports of additional casualties on Monday. However, reports suggested that overnight clashes and shelling have sent civilians in the border areas fleeing towards Hermel, Syria.

The Lebanon-Syria border spans 375km (233 miles) and features rugged terrain with no clear demarcation in many areas.

Lebanon has been seeking international support to boost funding for its military as it gradually deploys troops along its porous northern and eastern borders with Syria and along its southern border with Israel.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said on Monday that it had carried out an air attack in southern Lebanon, targeting two Hezbollah fighters.

Source

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Al Jazeera and news agencies