The strike centered on a
Syrian refugee camp located near the Syrian border between the towns of
Baalbeck and Arsal in the Bekaa Valley, the National News Agency said.
The Red Cross took the casualties to Universal Hospital in Baalbek.
Saturday's strike was not
the first by the Syrian government, which has accused rebels of
smuggling arms and supplies across the border.
On March 18, two Syrian jets fired three rockets that hit empty buildings near Arsal.
Report: Huge explosion kills 40 in Syria
At the time, a U.S. State
Department spokeswoman called the use of fighter jets to fire rockets
into Lebanon a "significant escalation."
Also in March, the U.N.
Security Council voiced "grave concern over repeated incidents of
cross-border fire which caused death and injury among the Lebanese
population, incursions, abductions and arms trafficking across the
Lebanese-Syrian border, as well as other border violations." The
declaration followed a briefing by officials on how the conflict in
Syria has spilled into Lebanon.
More than 600,000 Syrians
have fled to neighboring Lebanon, a country of about 4 million people,
according to a U.N. estimate. But the Lebanese government puts the total
at more than 1 million. Whatever the true figure, there is no dispute
that the influx has destabilized the area and heightened tensions.
The attack comes as the
Syrian conflict is mired in a third year of unrest, which started in
March 2011 when President Bashar al-Assad cracked down on peaceful
protesters.
Since then, it has
evolved into a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 and
transformed more than 1 million others into refugees, according to the
Red Cross.
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