"Syrians escaping oppression in Latakia and Banias are heading to Wadi
Khalid considered a no-man's land in Lebanon," the opposition Reform Party
of Syria said.
The Washington-based RPS did not say how many Syrians fled to northern
Lebanon, Middle East Newsline reported. But the opposition group said Syrian troops already entered the
territory of their eastern neighbor in search for anti-Assad activists.
"Unless the Lebanese media heads to the region to cover why the Syrian
army is on Lebanese soil, RPS expects a large scale massacre in this remote
region," the opposition group, regarded as authoritative, said.
This was believed to have marked the first Syrian Army incursion into
Lebanon since Assad's troops withdrew from that country in 2005. Damascus
retains a huge intelligence presence among the more than 1.2 million Syrian
laborers in Lebanon.
The Assad regime has confirmed that the Army was searching border areas
for what it called "armed terrorist gangs." Officials said Syrian troops
were hunting for anti-Assad fighters along the borders of Jordan, Lebanon
and Turkey. They said a Syrian Army outpost near the Jordanian border was
captured by unidentified fighters.
"We stress that the number of the Army and police martyrs reached 78,
and the number of civilians reached 70 since the eruption of the mercenary
violence that targeted the safety of citizens and homeland," a Syrian
military source told the official Sana news agency.
The revolt has spread to most major cities in Syria but appeared
strongest in Dera, near the Jordanian border, where thousands of Syrian
troops and scores of main battle tanks were deployed. Nearly 300 people have
been killed by Syrian Army and police fire in Dera since March.
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