A Syrian woman was killed when the Lebanese Army opened fire at a vehicle that refused to stop on the Syrian-Lebanese border.
The army said it encountered a vehicle “with vision-obscuring glass and without licence plates” that had crossed from Syria illegally and sought to evade a Lebanese Armed Forces checkpoint in the border town of Arsal.
“Its driver attempted to run over the checkpoint personnel, posing an imminent danger to their safety, forcing them to fire warning shots to compel it to stop,” the LAF said.
A dozen Syrians were found to have been in the vehicle, including a woman who was injured by gunshot and later died in hospital.
The driver fled, while three others were injured by shattered glass.
Despite efforts to improve it, the Lebanese-Syrian border remains extremely porous and smuggling of people, goods and narcotics continues to occur.
The LAF regularly releases reports of Syrians who have been detained for entering illegally, although it is rare for troops to open fire.
The neighbouring countries have had a tumultuous relationship, marked by Syria's intervention in Lebanon during the civil war in 1976 and its decades-long tutelage of the country, during which Syria's Assad regime was accused of carrying out several political assassinations.
After the fall of Bashar Al Assad's regime in 2024, authorities in both countries have sought to reshape their relationship and revive their once-close trade ties. But unresolved bilateral issues, including the repatriation of Syrian prisoners from Lebanon, continue to hinder the detente.
