Damascus Denies Syrian Warplanes Bombed Lebanese Border Area
Damascus on Tuesday denied that its warplanes had bombed areas on the Lebanese-Syrian border, accusing “hostile” countries of circulating the media reports.
“The reports circulated by some Lebanese, Arab and international media outlets about Syrian warplanes dropping bombs inside Lebanese territory are false and baseless,” Syria's state news agency SANA quoted an unnamed foreign ministry official as saying.
On Monday, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said “Syrian warplanes bombarded the outskirts of the towns of Khirbet Younin and Wadi al-Khayl in Arsal's barren mountains.”
But the Syrian official said “some countries that have endorsed the approach of hostility against Syria, through arming and financing armed terrorist groups, are behind circulating this false report.”
The Syrian foreign ministry “stresses that this report it totally false, and as it denies it in its entirety, it underlines its respect of Lebanese sovereignty and its keenness on the security and stability of brotherly Lebanon.”
President Michel Suleiman tasked on Tuesday Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour with sending a letter of protest to Syria over air raids in the northeastern border area.
Suleiman said the air raids were “unacceptable” and “violated Lebanese sovereignty.”
On Monday, a high-ranking Lebanese army official confirmed to Agence France Presse that Syrian air strikes took place along the border area, without saying whether they had struck inside Lebanese territory.
But a security services official on the ground told AFP that Syrian planes had fired four missiles at Arsal, where many residents back the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Al-Manar television, which belongs to pro-Damascus Hizbullah, said the warplanes had targeted two barns used by "armed men" in the Wadi al-Khayl area of Arsal.
Washington also confirmed Syrian forces had fired at northern Lebanon, calling the strikes "a significant escalation in the violations of Lebanese sovereignty that the Syrian regime has been guilty of."
Source: Naharnet
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://naharnet.com/stories/en/76204 |