The March 14 General Secretariat condemned on Wednesday last week’s attack against French troops in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, reiterating accusations that Syria is behind such assaults.

It added in a statement after its weekly meeting: “Hizbullah is also completely responsible for the attack because it controls the security of the South and UNIFIL’s area of operations.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Wednesday that Lebanon abides by international law and is committed to its cooperation with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in order to bolster security and stability.

He said after holding talks with UNIFIL Commander Major General Alberto Asarta: “The recent attack against the French unit in UNIFIL is aimed at harming Lebanese-French ties.”

Two Lebanese shepherds were injured on Wednesday in a Syrian cross-border fire in the eastern town of Arsal, Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) reported.

It said Mohammed and Khaled Fliti were attending their herds in the area of Kherbet Daoud when they received gunshot wounds from across the border.

Army defectors killed at least eight Syrian troops Wednesday in an act of revenge after security forces shot dead five civilians, activists said, in the second such insurgent attack in as many days, as the Local Coordination Committees said regime troops killed 26 civilians on Wednesday.

The LCC, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces shot dead nine people in Homs, eight in Hama, three in Idlib, two in Damascus, two in Daraa, one in al-Qamishli and one in the Damascus suburb of al-Zabadani.

The United States on Tuesday urged Russia to back U.N. Security Council action on Syria, after U.N. officials said the death toll in the months-long Syrian protests had exceeded 5,000.

"Frankly we think that it is past time for the U.N. Security Council to speak up," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters, denouncing Security Council silence on the Syrian regime as "unconscionable."

The Mustaqbal bloc noted on Tuesday that the state’s restoration of its sovereignty can help restore stability in Lebanon.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “The recent instability in the country can be attributed to the widespread possession of illegitimate arms.”

Syrian security forces killed a Saudi-Turkish citizen during a crackdown on an anti-regime protest in northwest Syria Tuesday, local Syrian opposition sources said.

The dead man, Mohammed Munir Dolar, was traveling in his vehicle in Kafr Yahmul, a town of Idlib province close to Turkey, when he was shot by security forces, who opened fire on protesters at around 1100 GMT, the sources told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stated on Tuesday that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon’s mission in the South has been curtailed due to Hizbullah’s presence in the area.

He said during a press conference on the latest developments: “Hizbullah is directly or indirectly responsible for all the security incidents in southern Lebanon.”

Army defectors on Tuesday killed seven members of Syria's security forces in retaliation for an attack that cost the lives of 11 civilians, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as the Local Coordination Committees said Syrian forces shot dead 33 civilians across the country on Tuesday.

The LCC, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces shot dead 20 people in the northwestern province of Idlib, seven in the central province of Hama, four in the central region of Homs and two in the southern province of Daraa.

An explosion ripped through a gas pipeline near the town of Rastan in Syria's flashpoint Homs province, the official news agency SANA reported Tuesday, blaming the overnight incident on "terrorists."

"An armed terrorist group in Homs bombed the gas pipeline near Rastan which caused explosions and fires in the pipeline at the point of bombing," the English-language report said, adding that "no human casualties were reported."