Lebanese Army Threatens Retaliation After Syria Raid

Syrian Attack Helicopter Targeted Sunni Town

Lebanon is increasingly just another battleground for the Syrian Civil War. Yesterday, rebels fired rockets against a Shi’ite town, killing one and wounding several others. Today it was the Syrian military that hit its smaller neighbor, targeting a Sunni town with a pair of rockets from an attack helicopter and wounding two people.

Syria’s state media reported that the helicopter was pursuing rebels who had fled across the border and were trying to hide in the Bekaa Valley, an area which has seen a lot of cross-border incidents.

Lebanon’s military was quick to condemn the attack, threatening to retaliate against Syrian forces if the nation’s military launched any further attacks on Lebanese soil.

The threat is mostly an empty one, as the small Lebanese military has historically been irrelevant when fighting happens in their nation, occasionally playing the role of feckless negotiator, but usually just retreating to their bases until things calm down.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.