ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A journalist and a photographer were injured on Monday amid clashes between Syrian security forces and alleged Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, Syrian state media reported. “A photographer and a journalist were injured on the Syrian-Lebanese border near the Zeita Dam after being directly targeted by a guided missile fired by Hezbollah militia,” Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said, citing a source in Homs province. On Sunday, Syria's defense ministry accused Hezbollah of kidnapping three Syrian army soldiers, abducting them into Lebanese territory, and executing them. Hezbollah denied involvement. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported on Monday that four Syrian army soldiers were killed “in clashes with tribal gunmen on the Syria-Lebanon border, putting the Syrian death toll at eight since clashes erupted.” This is not the first time skirmishes have occurred along the Lebanon-Syria border since the new Syrian leadership assumed power in Damascus. In early February, the state-run Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) said that the Lebanese Army began responding with "appropriate weapons" to sources of fire that targeted Lebanese territory from within Syria. The army issued orders to military units deployed on the northern and eastern borders to "respond to the sources of fire launched from Syrian territory targeting Lebanese land." The Lebanese-Syrian border is geographically complex, characterized by mountains, valleys, and plains, with no clear demarcations separating the two countries. The two sides share six land border crossings, extending over a distance of about 375 kilometers. The new Syrian leadership has expressed keenness to strengthen its security presence along the border with neighboring countries, including Lebanon, as part of broader efforts to stabilize domestic conditions and combat drug smuggling and remnants of the previous regime.
