Four Lebanese soldiers were injured on Friday during clashes between the army and Syrian gunmen in the Maaraboun-Baalbek region on the Lebanese-Syrian border.
According to a statement by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), the Syrian gunmen used “medium-caliber weaponry to target a military unit, causing moderate injuries to four soldiers.”
Earlier Friday, the Army Command had announced that a LAF military formation was in the process of closing an illegal crossing at the Lebanese-Syrian border in the Maaraboun region, when Syrians tried to reopen the passage using a bulldozer.
“To ward them off, the Lebanese army first fired in the air,” the army said, adding that the warning shots provoked a violent reaction from the Syrians, who opened fire on the Lebanese soldiers.
Additionally, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Hezbollah members and Syrian Defense Ministry personnel engaged in “fierce clashes” on the Lebanese border in the Rif Damascus area.
In this context, a Syrian source told MTV that the Lebanese army and local smugglers engaged in combat near the border Thursday night.
The same source emphasized that “the events in Maaraboun involve the Lebanese army and a group of smugglers impacted by the tightened border control following the fall of the Assad regime," adding that “this has nothing to do with the closure of the border.”
Syria’s new rulers led by the Islamist Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) sent reinforcements to guard the Syrian-Lebanese border and stop any smuggling operations, according to a later MTV report.
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