29.09 Syrian Violence Spills to Lebanese City – Mayor
DAMASCUS, September 29 (RIA Novosti) – Clashes continued late Saturday in the city of Baalbek in Lebanon between the Hezbollah group, which controls the city, and fighters of the Syrian Islamist insurgency, the city’s mayor told RIA Novosti.
“[Government army] troops have been deployed in the city by now, but clashes go on in some districts. An emergency staff has been created for the defense of Baalbek,” Hamad Hassan said.
The mayor of the ancient city, located 75 kilometers west of Damascus, blamed the attack on a mixed Lebanese-Syrian squad of so-called Takfiri Sunni radicals, which attacked a roadblock by the Shiite group Hezbollah in the city’s center on Saturday.
Hassan put the death toll at three people, including at least one Lebanese army soldier. Earlier reports about the clash near the Baalbek marketplace spoke of up to seven victims, including two fighters of Hezbollah, a group that supports the Alawite Syrian government in its 2 1/2-year-long struggle against a domestic insurgency increasingly dominated by Sunni radicals.
“This is an unprecedented raid by the radicals, they have been firing rockets at our city across the border and now they planned a ground operation by armed squads,” Hassan said.
Media reports said the attackers at the roadblock wielded automatic rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers. Hassan said the Lebanese army was also cautious of possible Takfiri snipers active in Baalbek, a city of 72,000 that dates back to the times of Alexander the Great.
