Lebanon raids Syrian camps after blasts

BAALBEK, Lebanon - Agence France-Presse

AP photo

Lebanese troops raided makeshift refugee camps near a predominantly Christian village on the border with Syria on June 27 a day after two waves of suicide attacks, while troops detained 103 Syrians for illegal entry into the country in a security sweep.

Lebanese Interior Minister Nuhad Mashnuq said the attackers who carried out the June 27 violence had come from inside Syria, not refugee settlements nearby.  

 “The army has deployed a large force to Masharia Al-Qaa and is carrying out widespread searches in the displacement camps, looking for weapons or wanted people,” the state National News Agency reported.

“We are worried that there are more terrorists, so the Lebanese army is searching the area,” said Bashir Matar, mayor of Al-Qaa, which lies in a hilly border area shaken by violence since the civil war erupted in Syria in 2011.
Five people were killed and 15 wounded when four suicide bombers attacked the village before dawn on June 27.

A second wave of attacks hit Al-Qaa on the night of June 27. Another four suicide bombers wounded 13 people.
The Lebanese troops also detained 103 Syrians for illegal entry into the country in a security sweep on June 28. 

Meanwhile, the Turkish Parliament has agreed to extend the Turkish soldiers’ mission in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, for another year.