Ten injured by Syrian air strike of Lebanon’s Arsal

For the third time this week Syria’s air force on Wednesday struck the northern Beqaa town of Arsal

The strike injured ten Syrians, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

NNA did not specify if the army fired back during Wednesday’s air raid.

For the first time since the outbreak of the Syria’s conflict three years ago the Lebanese military took action to prevent Syrian warplanes from violating its airspace on Monday.

The Lebanese officials said the military opened anti-aircraft fire at two Syrian warplanes on Monday after the aircraft bombed Khirbet Daoud, which lies in the Eastern Mountain Range in an area adjacent to the barren mountains of the Lebanese town of Arsal.

Since the eruption of the neighboring country’s war, Arsal has repeatedly been targeted by the forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al Assad.

The Lebanese are divided over events in Syria, while The March 14 alliance has been calling for supporting the revolution Hezbollah sent thousands of its fighters to help the Syrian regime in its fight against the rebels who are trying to topple the 40 year old Assad dictatorship.

While March 14 hailed the response of the army, Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Adnan Mansour, who represents the Amal Movement in the cabinet, a close ally of Hezbollah and the syrian regime commented on the response by Lebanese forces to the Syrian aircraft that violated the country’s airspace by saying the ” Syrian Air force represents a brotherly nation to Lebanon and is not an enemy .”

Mansour told the Al Jamhouriyeh newspaper in remarks published on Tuesday: ” We must know the truth of what happened and we are waiting for the army command to tell us the details and the information available so that we can deal with this issue within the framework of the security agreements signed between the two sisterly states.”

Mansour added: ” We emphasize that what has happened does not affect the nature of the brotherly relations between the two countries , and we want always distinctive relations with Syria.”

Update; In another development NNA reported that shells launched from the Syrian side of the border on Wednesday landed on the Akkar town of Khirbet Daoud.