7 Oct 2011

Officials accuse Syrian troops of killing man in Lebanon

9:13 pm on 7 October 2011

Lebanese officials say Syrian troops entered Lebanon and shot dead a Syrian farmer living in a border area.

Government and security officials in Beirut said the incident happened in a remote part of the eastern Bekaa Valley when Syrian troops entered Lebanese territory and opened fire, killing the farmer.

They said he was a Syrian married to a Lebanese woman.

There was no immediate explanation as to why he was targeted.

The BBC reports that the border between Lebanon and Syria in eastern Bekaa is "porous" and ill-defined.

It follows an incursion earlier in the week into neighbouring Lebanese territory by Syrian tanks.

The incidents have reinforced fears that Syria's problems may spill further into Lebanon.