Multiple people were injured in Friday’s firefight between Syrian gunmen and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in the town of Maarboun in the Baalbeck caza, which escalated security events near the Syrian border.
Furthermore, in Akkar, armed Syrians crossed the border to illegally cut down trees.
According to a statement issued by the Lebanese Army on X, a military unit was in the process of closing an illegal crossing at the Lebanese-Syrian border in the Maarboun region, when Syrians entered on a bulldozer, in an attempt to reopen the road.
“To ward them off, the Lebanese army first fired in the air,” according to the text, but these warning shots provoked a violent reaction from the Syrians, who opened fire on the Lebanese soldiers.
According to the press release, the matter is currently being closely monitored, and strict military measures have been taken to prevent the situation from escalating.
‘Ecological Crime’ in Menjez
In the meantime, Syrians illegally felled trees in a Lebanese forest in the Akkar region and shot anyone who stood in their way, according to a report released on Friday by the nongovernmental organization TERRE Liban.
In a press release, TERRE Liban reported an “ecological crime” south of the Orontes, in Menjez, on the Lebanese side of the border with Syria to the northeast, in a reserve named “the black forest,” due to the density of the trees.
According to the text, “a group of armed Syrians have been crossing the border to the black forest on a daily basis for the past few days, where hundreds of trees have been cut down and transported to the Syrian village of Azeiz.”
“They are shooting at anyone who tries to prevent them from felling trees in the forest, which is part of the Important Plant Areas (IPA) program and is on UNESCO's preliminary list of international heritage sites,” according to the press release, which denounced a flagrant attack on Lebanese sovereignty and called on the army, the ISF and the relevant ministries to react to put an end to these illegal acts.
Comments