Suleiman Urges 'Syrian Side' to Stop Shelling Lebanon after Death of 2 Lebanese
President Michel Suleiman on Sunday urged the “Syrian side” to refrain from opening fire and shelling Lebanon after two Lebanese were killed on the northern border with Syria.
Suleiman “expressed regret” at the death of Lebanese from “military operations near the Lebanese border,” said a statement issued by Baabda palace.
The president reiterated the “importance of commitment to the neutral stance of non-interference in other countries' affairs, mainly Syria.”
He called on the “Syrian side” however “to refrain from opening fire and shelling Lebanese territories.”
The statement said Suleiman held telephone conversations with several officials and asked security agencies to investigate the two deaths.
A man was killed at dawn Sunday by Syrian shells that landed on the town of al-Hishe in the Wadi Khaled area that borders Syria in northern Lebanon, the National News Agency reported Sunday.
NNA identified the man as al-Hishe municipality member Ahmed Shehab. His brother Hani was injured.
Al-Hishe mayor Mohammed Dargham al-Ahmed said the town's residents are angry over the spread of gunmen.
“We call for the deployment of the Lebanese army on the border,” he told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).
The municipal chief of the nearby town of Mashta, Hammoud Naji Ramadan, also said that a house was badly damaged from Syrian artillery fire.
Artillery, mortar fire and automatic weapons were used in battles between Syrian troops and fighters on the Lebanese side of the border overnight Saturday to Sunday, said a senior Lebanese security official.
The violence broke out a few hours after another Lebanese man, Hussein Ismail, 40, was killed by gunfire in the Lebanese area of al-Buqaiaa.
A local Lebanese official told Agence France Presse that some of those involved in the fighting on the Lebanese side were members of the dead man's clan.
The military police launched an investigation into the death of Ismail known as Azou, the army's general command announced late Saturday.
The violence in Syria has increasingly spilled over into Lebanon, with cross-border shellings in the north and east.
Source: Naharnet, Agence France Presse
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