The Mayor of the Bekaa town of Arsal Ali Hojeiri which has witnessed several Syrian violations of the Lebanese borders, rejected the statement of Secretary General of the Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council Nasri Khoury who said that “the Syrian army killed Syrian national Ali al-Khatib on Syrian territory.”
“The land is Lebanese and the borders are undoubtedly demarcated,” the Arsal Mayor told Free Lebanon Radio.
Hojeiri also said that “the son of Hezbollah’s Religious Council Chairman, Sheikh Mohammad Yazbeck, sold weapons to the Syrians.”
“The residents of Aarsal asked to be protected from the Syrian army, but they were not… now they have to defend themselves,” he added.
Khouri who is a staunch supporter of the Syrian regime even though his position requires him to be neutral ( appointed to his position during the Syrian tutelage told MTV television on Monday that “the land the Syrian army had trespassed is located in the overlapping territory between Lebanon and Syria.”
He also said that “the Syrian national Ali al-Khatib was killed in a Syrian village while he was trying to enter the Lebanese borders illegally.”
Last Tuesday October 4, Syrian army tanks crossed the Lebanese border near the town of Arsal and fired several gunshots within the Lebanese territory. On the next day the Syrian troops shot and killed a Syrian national near Arsal.
Another Syrian patrol crossed the Lebanese borders last Thursday , but this time in the North which triggered panic among residents.
Thousands of Syrians have fled to Lebanon in recent months, often using illegal border crossings, to escape the unrest gripping their country.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s troops are engaged in a deadly cracked down against pro-democracy protesters since mid-March, killing over 3,000 people according to the UN Human Rights Committee, and triggering a torrent of international condemnation.
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