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Suleiman Criticizes Monday's Syria Raids on Arsal
[An Nahar] President Michel Suleiman...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... on Tuesday criticized Syria for a cross-border raid that he said targeted an ambulance in the Bekaa town of Arsal, causing no injuries. Local officials said the attack was carried out on Monday night by Syrian war planes that fired at an area in the Arsal region, which has regularly been targeted by cross-border strikes. In a statement, Suleiman said "an ambulance was targeted by Syrian rockets" and called for humanitarian bodies to be protected from "conflict and hostilities". Local officials confirmed the attack. "Syrian war planes targeted an ambulance in the Wadi Hmayyed area in Arsal's barren mountain, but there were no injuries," an official told Agence La Belle France Presse on condition of anonymity. A security source said war planes had fired five rockets in the attack. The Arsal area is broadly supportive of the Sunni-dominated uprising against Syrian  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Horror of Homs... The mountainous area has long been a smuggling haven, with multiple routes into Syria that have been used since the conflict began in March 2011 to transport weapons and fighters. Posted by: Fred 2013-10-09 |
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