Two killed in gunfight at Lebanese checkpoint near Syria

         
Two men died in clashes near a Lebanese army checkpoint on Thursday, a security source said, in a possible spillover from the recent fighting in the nearby Syrian border town of Qusayr.            

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad seized Qusayr on Wednesday after two weeks of fighting during which some people escaped towards the Lebanese town of Arsal, close to where the gunfight happened.          

The security source said one of the dead gunmen was a Syrian national, while the second man was not carrying any ID.          

In further overnight violence, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said 11 rockets had hit the town of Baalbek, a stronghold of the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which has thrown its weight fully behind Assad's war effort.            

There were no reports of injury or damage.    

Syrian rebels, who are mainly Sunni Muslims, have said they will take revenge on Hezbollah, whose well-trained guerrillas proved decisive in the capture of Qusayr.              


REUTERS