Lebanon to protest Syrian border violations

President Michel Sleiman tasked Foreign Affairs Minister Adnan Mansour Monday with delivering a letter of protest to Syria’s envoy to Lebanon over recurrent violations of Lebanon’s border. According to Sleiman’s office, the president tasked Mansour with delivering “a letter of protest” to Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdel-Karim Ali over the violations of Lebanon breaches addressed to Syrian authorities. “Sleiman deplored the incident over the weekend which he said included the bombing of a house in Masharih al-Qaa and the frequent shelling of Lebanese villages particularly in the north,” according to the statement. Thirty Syrian army soldiers crossed into the Masharih al-Qaa village of Al-Joura, which is on the Lebanese side of the border crossing over the weekend. They came some 500 meters into the country, raiding homes. One man was wounded in the exchange, a house was burned down, and several others were damaged. Last week, the Lebanese Army launched a troop deployment to north Lebanon as well as the northern and eastern border with Syria following a spate of incidents along the shared border. According to the president’s office Monday, Sleiman also asked Army head Gen. Jean Kahwagi and security forces to coordinate in their investigations of the incidents in order to help prevent their recurrence.