Two Lebanese Killed in 'Armed Attack' on Syrian Border Town

Two Lebanese nationals were killed in an armed attack in the Syrian town of Rableh on the border with Lebanon, state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday, after Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that around 30,000 Lebanese residents live in 23 Syrian border towns and 12 farms in the frontier region.

Lebanese citizens "Abdo Yaacoub al-Ahmar, who was born in the Hermel town of al-Shawaghir in 1920, and Taifallah Nicola Atiyyeh, 53, were transported from Syrian territory for treatement in Lebanon via the Lebanese border town of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali after they sustained severe wounds in an armed attack on the town of Rableh. However, they succumbed to their wounds a short time later," NNA said.

"Dozens of the area's residents staged a rally to demand that the state protect the Lebanese citizens who live in Syrian border towns," NNA added.

And after Radio Voice of Lebanon (100.5) reported earlier that "the bodies of two Lebanese citizens were transported from Syria to the al-Batoul Hospital in Hermel," NNA later said that the two bodies were taken back to the town of Rableh for burial.

On Friday, Nasrallah denied reports that a Hizbullah commander and several fighters were recently killed while fighting alongside the regime in Syria, clarifying that the Hizbullah fighters were killed while defending Lebanese-inhabited border towns inside Syria.

The Lebanese residents of Syrian border towns "maintained their ties with Lebanon and they vote in Lebanon. Some of the men of these Lebanese families have been members of Lebanese parties since decades,” Nasrallah added.

“A large number of Lebanese residents of these border towns belong to Hizbullah and they have been fighting in the party's ranks since 30 years. We did not tell them how to deal with the incidents. We told them make your own choice and they chose to stay in their homes. Armed groups attacked them and carried out killings, kidnappings and even rapes,” Nasrallah clarified.

“Some of them decided to flee the area, but most of them stayed in their towns and started to arm themselves. The residents of these towns took the decision to stay and defend themselves against the armed groups and did not engage in the battle between the regime and the opposition,” Hizbullah's leader added.