Syrian army cross-border fire kills Lebanese woman

Syrian troops fired across the Lebanese border on Wednesday morning, killing a 75-year-old woman and wounding her daughter, residents and a doctor in the Lebanese town of al-Qaa said.

Halima Suleiman Karbi was shot in the head and her daughter, 33, was shot in the stomach as they sat by a mosque in the rural mountainous border region, residents said. Both were taken to hospital, where Karbi died from her wounds, a doctor said.

The United Nations refugee agency says 24,000 Syrians have fled to Lebanon in the past 14 months to escape an increasingly bloody struggle between President Bashar al-Assad and his foes.

Last month a Lebanese television cameraman was killed by gunfire from Syrian troops across the border. Shells have also landed inside Lebanon in the past, and residents say Syrian troops sometimes cross the frontier to pursue rebel fighters.

The United Nations estimates that Syrian security forces have killed more than 9,000 people. Damascus says 2,600 of its security personnel have died at the hands of insurgents.

Reuters