Report: Syrian forces advance in border town's Lebanese part, displacing hundreds

Armed forces belonging to Syria’s new administration made a five-kilometer incursion at 2am Tuesday into the Lebanese part of the border town of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali and continued their advance in the morning, the town’s Lebanese mayor Ali Nassereddine said.

In remarks to Annahar newspaper, the mayor said the Syrian forces seized the Lebanese government school and “displaced more than 500 Lebanese families after their homes were torched and looted during the military operations.”

Lebanese Army special forces meanwhile arrived at the town’s entrance, amid reports that a delicate delineation of the border will take part inside the town, after the mayor gave the Lebanese Army a map that clearly shows the town’s borders.

The Lebanese health ministry says at least seven people were killed and 52 wounded in clashes on the border with Syria that erupted on Sunday night, after the new authorities in Damascus accused Hezbollah of abducting three soldiers into Lebanon and killing them. Hezbollah denied any involvement in the incidents.

A Lebanese security source told AFP that Syrian forces fired shells into Lebanon after the three security personnel were killed in the Lebanese village of Qasr by local gunmen involved in smuggling.

Earlier Monday President Joseph Aoun said that the Lebanese Army would respond to incoming fire from neighboring Syria.

"What is happening on the eastern and northeastern borders cannot continue," Aoun said in a post on X. "I have directed the Lebanese army to respond to the source of the fire."

Aoun added that he asked Lebanon's foreign minister, who was in Brussels for a donors conference on Syria, to contact Syrian officials to resolve the problem "and prevent further escalation.”

The army announced that its units had "responded to the sources of fire with appropriate weapons" after the renewed shelling from Syrian territory, NNA reported.

It added that its units "are working to strengthen their defensive positions to stop attacks on Lebanese territory."

In a call late on Monday, Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Menassa and his Syrian counterpart Marhaf Abu Qasra agreed to "implement a ceasefire" and prevent further escalation, the Lebanese defense ministry said.

The agreement also stipulates “enhanced coordination and cooperation between the two sides,” a statement from the Syrian Ministry of Defense said.

The army said earlier that it had undertaken "exceptional security measures and intensive communications" since Sunday night that had led to the return of the three Syrian soldiers' bodies to authorities there.

Lebanon's defense minister had told a Cabinet meeting that the three Syrians killed were smugglers.

A source in Syria's defense ministry later told state news agency SANA that forces had launched a security sweep of the border areas.

"Our aim with our actions on the border is to expel Hezbollah militias from the Syrian villages and areas they use as temporary bases for smuggling and drug trafficking operations," the source said.