Videos circulated on social media and disseminated by Syrian media outlets showed intense artillery and multiple rocket launcher fire from the Syrian side to the Lebanese side and large columns of military reinforcements heading toward the border.

Syria TV reported that the Syrian army intensified its artillery fire after a guided missile attack on a position in the border village of Al-Fadiliya, left two Syrian soldiers dead.

The Syrian Ministry of Defense press office commented on this escalation, stating that a group from the Lebanese Resistance Movement (Hezbollah), on the border near the Zeita Dam, ambushed and kidnapped three soldiers and took them to Lebanese territory where they were atrociously murdered. “We will take all necessary measures to respond to this dangerous escalation,” the ministry said in a statement released by the SANA news agency.

According to Syrian sources cited by the Qatari network Al-Jazeera, coordination between Syrian military forces and the Lebanese army has intensified to secure the border and contain the escalation.

The Lebanese National News Agency reported that the Lebanese army handed over the bodies of the three soldiers to Syrian security forces, through the Red Cross, at the Joussieh-Al-Qaa border crossing.

Meanwhile, Lebanese media reported a movement of people from border towns toward the Hermel region, as a result of intensified shelling in areas next to the Syrian border. They reported that one child was killed and four others were injured as a result of the shelling of towns in the Beqaa Valley, in eastern Lebanon.

In its commentary on the clashes, Hezbollah issued a statement denying its involvement in the events along the border. “We have nothing to do with any events taking place on Syrian territory,” it asserted.

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