Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Mansi and his Syrian counterpart Murhaf Abu Kasra have agreed on a ceasefire, the Lebanese and Syrian defense ministries said, as quoted by Reuters and BTA.
Three soldiers from the new Syrian army and seven Lebanese have been killed in cross-border clashes over the past two days, the Syrian Defense Ministry and the Lebanese Ministry of Health said. Fifty-two people on the Lebanese side were wounded, the health ministry added.
The border between the two countries has been a flashpoint in the three months since Islamist rebels ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Tehran and the Iranian-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, and established their own institutions and army, Reuters noted.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raji met his Syrian counterpart, Assad al-Sheibani, in Brussels to discuss cross-border developments, and the two agreed to maintain contacts, the Lebanese state news agency NNA reported.
Late on Sunday, the Syrian Defense Ministry accused Hezbollah of fighters from the group crossing into Syrian territory and kidnapping and killing three soldiers. the new Syrian army. “Hezbollah“ denies involvement.
A Lebanese security source told Reuters that the three Syrian soldiers first crossed into Lebanese territory and were then killed by tribal fighters in northeastern Lebanon who feared their town was under attack.
According to the Syrian Defense Ministry and the Lebanese army, Syrian troops responded by shelling Lebanese border towns.
Residents of the town of Al-Qasr, located less than a kilometer from the border, told Reuters that they had fled further inland to avoid shelling.
The Lebanese army said last night that it had handed over the bodies of the three killed Syrians to Syrian authorities and that it had responded to the shelling from Syrian territory and sent reinforcements to the border area.
According to a reporter Reuters, located in the border area, said the Syrian army sent a column of soldiers and several tanks to the border last night. The Syrian troops fired into the air as they moved through towns on the way to the border.
“Large military reinforcements have been brought in to strengthen positions along the Syrian-Lebanese border and prevent possible infiltrations in the coming days,“ said Maher Ziwani, head of the Syrian army division that has begun deploying along the border.