Red Cross Convoy Carrying Qusayr Wounded Interrupted in Bekaa, Changes Route

Members of the Jaafar clan in the Bekaa on Monday blocked the road in front of a Red Cross convoy carrying Syrians wounded in the neighboring country's battles, forcing it to change its route.

"Members of the Jaafar clan, who are also Hizbullah supporters, blocked the road linking Baalbeck to the North to prevent a Red Cross convoy from passing,” radio Voice of Lebanon (100.5) reported.

It added: “The convoy returned to Arsal after Jaafar family members blocked the road with burnt tires.”

Meanwhile, LBCI television said several women interrupted a Red Cross convoy carrying wounded Syrians in the Hermel region, which forced it to change its route.

Later, however, the state-run National News Agency said phone calls did not succeed in opening the road, which forced the convoy to take the Hermel-Baalbeck-Ainata route instead, escorted by the army and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

VDL had noted noted that the 29 Syrians on board were wounded in the battles of Syria's border town of al-Qusayr.

On Saturday, an ICRC convoy carrying wounded fighters from Arsal to Bekaa hospitals was pelted with stones on the al-Labweh-Baalbek road, NNA reported.

The convoy, however, continued its trip towards hospitals in the Bekaa, the agency said.

The Lebanese Red Cross transported on Sunday around 35 Syrians, who were wounded in the Syrian town of Qusayr, state-run National News Agency reported.

The NNA said that the transfer operations kicked off overnight Saturday.

The wounded people were submitted to al-Menyeh Hospital in the northern city of Tripoli, the news agency added.

The wounded were evacuated as the regime seized the last remaining insurgent bastion in the Qusayr area of central Syria, near the Lebanese border.

Red Cross Operations Director George Kettaneh later told LBCI that 87 wounded people have been transported from Qusayr to Lebanon since Friday in cooperation with the Lebanese army.