Van carrying illegal Syrian refugees runs over Lebanese soldier, driver killed

A van carrying illegal Syrian refugees on Thursday ran over a Lebanese soldier of an army patrol.

The driver tried to flee before being killed in the incident, the army said in a statement.

“As an army patrol was trying to stop a Hyundai van carrying Syrians who had illegally entered Lebanon in the al-Qbour al-Beed area on the northern border, the vehicle driver ran over a member of the patrol and tried to flee the site despite the firing of warning shots in the air by the rest of the patrol members,” the statement said.

“This forced the patrol to fire at the vehicle’s tires, which resulted in the wounding of the driver, his loss of control over the vehicle and its crash into an electricity pole before his eventual death,” the statement added.

The driver was  identified by MTV as Khaled al-Saleh . He reportedly hailed from the Akkar town of Mashta Hammoud

The e wounded soldier’s condition is reportedly stable.

New wave of refugees

 Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati appealed last week to the international community for assistance in addressing the Syrian refugee issue in Lebanon.

The prime minister made the remarks at the ongoing 78th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“I will ask the international community to support us in facing the displacement crisis, as Lebanon hosts a big number of displaced Syrians,” said Mikati.

He added that thousands of additional displaced people are arriving in Lebanon every day causing “an imbalance in Lebanon’s economy.”

With an estimated 2.2 million Syrian refugees residing within its borders, Lebanon bears the weight of hosting the largest number of refugees per capita. The presence of Syrian refugees has put a strain on Lebanon’s resources and stoked widespread discontent among its citizens.

Last month Lebanese Minister of the Displaced Issam Charafeddine called on Syrian authorities to cooperate in managing the common border amid a new wave of illegal immigration from Syria to Lebanon.

Unlike the previous waves of Syrian refugees, this time they are mostly males between 20 and 50 years old. In the previous waves that started in 2011, the majority were women and children