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Calm after Syrian-Lebanon border clashes

07 June 2012 00:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Calm returned to the Lebanese border town of Arsal following clashes early on Wednesday between Syrian troops and residents after a Lebanese man was killed and three wounded, a security source said, APA reports quoting AFP.

Officials said rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons were fired during the fighting in Khirbet Daoud, on the outskirts of Arsal, after the four were hit by Syrian gunfire in Arsal itself.

"The clashes followed the fatal shooting of a young man and the wounding of three others by the Syrian army," the security official said.

"The people of Arsal are trying to retrieve the body of the young man from the Syrian army," he added.

Arsal Mayor Ali Hujairi said the Syrian army "opened fire around 3.00 am (0000 GMT) on a group of people in the area of Khirbet Daoud," abd that Syrian soldiers had entered Lebanese territory.

"This led to the fatal shooting of one man, whose body was pulled into Syrian territory and the wounding of three others who were taken to the hospital," Hujairi said.

The National News Agency reported that four Lebanese came under fire "while trying to enter Syria through the mountainous region in Arsal."

The majority of Arsal’s population is Sunni and support the popular uprising in Syria against President Bashar al-Assad.

Meanwhile, Syrian security forces inside Lebanon arrested Khaled Swedan al-Badawi, the mayor of Rama village in the Wadi Khaled region, a security source said.

The source said the arrest happened at a border crossing, and that Badawi had already passed from the Lebanese security point to the Syrian side when he was detained.

And on Tuesday, Syrian forces arrested Lebanese Khaled Moussa in the northern border area amid conflicting reports about whether he was detained on the Lebanese or Syrian side.

Since the outbreak of protests in Syria in March 2011, the Lebanese-Syrian border has seen a number of shootings and incursions from the Syrian side.

The United Nations estimates that about 22,000 Syrians have fled violence in their homeland to seek refuge in Lebanon.