Syrian rockets kill man in northeast Lebanon

HERMEL, Lebanon: One man was killed and several people were wounded Sunday when Syrian gunmen slammed rockets into Lebanon’s border village of Qasr in the Hermel region, a Lebanese security source said.

Ali Hasan Qataya died after three rockets fired from the Syrian side of the border landed near the mosque in Qasr. Several residents were wounded and rushed to hospitals, the source told The Daily Star. Reports earlier said the fatality was a child.

The Army confirmed in a statement the killing of Ataya and the wounding of three others. The Army said it heavily deployed in the Qasr region and “took necessary measures to protect residents and adequately respond to the source of fire.”  

Qasr is located parallel to a string of villages inside Syria inhabited by Shiite Lebanese. Tensions between residents of the Shiite villages and Syrian rebels have run high since the start of the uprising in Syria.

Various Lebanese border villages in the north and the Bekaa Valley have been the target of shelling from the Syrian side but Sunday’s incident marks the first time casualties are recorded in Qasr.

President Michel Sleiman condemned the shelling on Qasr and called to put an end to recurrent bombardment of Lebanese border areas.

“Such practices have led to the killing of innocent Lebanese that have nothing to with the conflict raging on the other side of the border,” Sleiman was quoted as saying in a statement released by his media office.

The statement added that the president was closely following up on the situation in Qasr with the Interior Ministry and the Army.